95% of BECE results cancelled over phone use in exam hall – WAEC

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) says about 95% of this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) for school and private results were cancelled due to candidates using mobile phones in examination halls.

Head of Public Affairs at West African Examinations Council (WAEC), John Kapi, disclosed this while speaking on Accra-based Starr FM’s Morning Star with Naa Dedei Tettey on Monday, August 25, monitored by Pretertiary.com.

“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 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 119 schools,” he said.

The spokesman for the not-for-profit organization 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.

A total of 603,328 candidates, comprising 297,250 males and 306,078 females, from nineteen thousand, five hundred and five (19,505) participating Junior High Schools (JHSs) entered for the school examination.

This includes seventy-two (72 ) candidates with visual impairment, two hundred and thirty-nine (239) with hearing impairment, and one hundred and sixty-one (161) candidates with other test accommodation needs.

The examination was conducted at two thousand, two hundred and thirty-seven (2,237 ) centres across the country. Out of the total number, two thousand, five hundred and twenty-six (2,526) candidates were absent.

The BECE for Private Candidates recorded a total entry figure of one thousand, three hundred and ninety (1,661) candidates. This was made up of eight hundred and fifty-eight (858) males and eight hundred and three (803 ) females.

Fifteen (15) centres, mostly in the regional capitals, were used for the BECE for Private Candidates. Out of the total number of candidates who entered for the examination, fifty-seven (57) were absent.

In a related development, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has confiscated a mobile phone belonging to an invigilator, Bright Amoah, at the Armed Forces Senior High Technical School.

The phone was discovered and seized on Monday, August 25, during WAEC’s monitoring exercise at the Armed Forces SHTS at Burma Camp in Accra, while candidates were writing their first major paper, Social Studies.

Mr. Amoah is alleged to have been in possession of already-solved questions from the ongoing 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School candidates in the country.

The Armed Forces Senior High Technical School invigilator’s phone reportedly contained material from the Oral English and Picture Making papers.

Although these examinations had already been written, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) suspects possible foul play, leading to the seizure of the device.