‘BECE certificates will be discreted by Exam malpractices’ – Education Coalition

• Posted on August 28, 2018
• by Ellsamwise King
• Comment

The Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC), has criticized the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) over the cancellation of results of some 2018 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates.

According to the coalition, the constant exam malpractices in the BECE will discredit certificates issued by the Council.

For us it is very unacceptable because it has implications on the certificate issued at the end of the day. If these things persist, the certificate will not be considered as credible and that will affect the opportunities that will be available for the children going forward.”

The entire results of 83 candidates who wrote the 2018 BECE were cancelled.

WAEC said it cancelled the results because the candidates brought mobile phones into examination halls and received external assistance.

Some candidates had their entire results withheld while others had their specific subject results cancelled pending the conclusion of investigations into alleged examination malpractice.

But in an interview with Citi News, Veronica Dzeagu, National Coordinator of GNECC, noted that it is time for WAEC to restructure the administration of the BECE to avert the worrying trend.

“It is about time WAEC puts in the necessary measures, put in the right people as invigilators to make sure that these things do not occur.”

“The situation is so unacceptable. We have raised concerns over this issue in the past. Two years ago a similar situation came up and we issued a statement condemning WAEC for not putting in the necessary measures in place to prevent this thing from happening but the problem has persisted”, she stressed.

Malpractices in 2018 BECE

83 candidates had their entire results cancelled for bringing mobile phones into the examination hall and receiving external assistance.

134 candidates had their subject results cancelled for bringing foreign material into the examination hall; for collusion and engaging in irregular activity during the examination.

2,061 candidates have their results withheld pending the conclusion of investigations into alleged examination malpractice.

The withheld results will either be released or cancelled as soon as the Council concludes its investigations.

WAEC releases results for 2018 BECE candidates

Last week, WAEC released the provisional results of candidates who sat for the 2018 BECE.

In a statement signed by Agnes Teye Cudjoe, Deputy Director, Public Affairs at WAEC, the council said it is in the process of dispatching the results to the schools through the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Directors of Education.

After officially releasing the results, WAEC said it has “hosted the results online, and candidates who so desire may access their results at the Council’s website”.

Results statistics

A total of 509,827 candidates sat for the examinations.

This was made up of 263,291 males and 246,536 females.

The figure is 8.92% higher than of 2017.

The candidates were from a total of 16,060 schools.

The examination was administered at 1, 772 centres.

Source: CNR