The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has revealed that the overwhelming majority of cancelled results in this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) were due to candidates using mobile phones in examination halls.
Head of Public Affairs at WAEC, John Kapi, speaking on Morning Starr with Naa Dedei Tettey on Monday, August 25, disclosed that 95% of the reported infractions were tied to mobile phone possession.
“At the end of this, the marking process, we cancelled 718 subject results, that is for 718 candidates. Then we had 177 of them who had their entire results cancelled. We withheld a 1,240 results of candidates and then also the entire results of ninety-three candidates have withheld for further investigation. A number of schools have had, I mean, for the entire school, subject results have been cancelled for about a 119 schools,” he said.
Mr. Kapi explained that WAEC’s rules explicitly bar candidates from entering examination halls with mobile phones or other electronic devices capable of storing information.
“Any candidate who assaults an examination official will have their entire results cancelled and so and of course, anybody who has any other electronic gadget that has you know, facilities that can store information for later would also have their entire results cancelled. So, basically, these are the things. Most of them actually or I would say about 95% of them had mobile phone infractions,” he emphasized.
The disclosure follows WAEC’s release of provisional results for the 2025 BECE for School Candidates.
This year’s examination, conducted from June 11 to June 18, saw 603,328 candidates from 20,395 schools sit for the papers.
The candidates included 297,250 males and 306,078 females, with special provisions made for 72 visually impaired candidates, 239 with hearing impairments, and 161 with other special needs.
WAEC has urged students, parents, and schools to strictly adhere to examination rules to safeguard the integrity of the certificate.
Source: Starrfm.com.gh
