Kofi Asare, the Executive Director of the African Education Watch (Eduwatch), has told the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) to complete investigations into suspected examination malpractice before releasing examination results.
According to Eduwatch Executive Director, releasing results while some candidates remain under investigation creates difficulties for students seeking admission to tertiary institutions.
He argued that some candidates are forced to wait for the outcome of investigations, sometimes until tertiary admission processes have been completed.
Kofi Asare stressed that WAEC must conclude all investigations before releasing examination results, so that candidates will know from the outset whether their results have been cancelled or cleared.
Eduwatch Executive Director stated, “We at a point suggested to the government that why won’t we finish all investigations before we release the results so that from day one, everybody knows whether they had their results cancelled or their results were intact. Instead of holding some of them to ransom and then they wait, by the time the results are released, tertiary admissions are over”.
His comments follow the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) announcement that the entire results of 861 WASSCE candidates were cancelled after they were found in possession of mobile phones during the 2026 examinations.
According to WAEC’s Head of Public Affairs, John Kapi, WAEC’s regulations prohibit candidates from possessing mobile phones in examination halls, whether the devices are used or not.
“The rule is that once you have a mobile phone, your results are cancelled,” Mr Kapi said.
“It is possible that the candidates devise a means of concealing these from the invigilators who are searching, or that the search is not thorough,” he stated.
“But the point is that we still find a lot of candidates who go into the examination hall with mobile phones.”
Also, he further disclosed that some 270 candidates have also been withheld pending investigations into various suspected examination offences.
Mr Kapi added that WAEC also cancelled the subject results of 7,434 candidates for taking unauthorised materials into examination halls.
He further urged affected candidates whose results have been withheld or cancelled to visit WAEC’s examination irregularities portal to determine why their results had been cancelled or withheld.
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has released the provisional results of the 2026 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School Candidates.
In the 2026 exams, a total of 512,862 candidates from 1,022 schools entered the examination, comprising 225,270 males and 287,592 females.
The results release saw Social Studies recorded the strongest performance among the four core subjects, with 78.04 per cent of candidates obtaining grades between A1 and C6.
Mathematics (Core) also recorded a significant recovery after a sharp decline in 2025.
The proportion of candidates obtaining A1-C6 in Mathematics increased from 48.73 per cent in 2025 to 60.75 per cent in 2026.
Also, Integrated Science performance improved, rising from 57.74 per cent in 2025 to 62.08 per cent in 2026.
However, English Language records declined, with the proportion of candidates obtaining A1-C6 in English Language falling from 69.00 per cent in 2025 to 62.40 per cent in 2026.
WAEC disclosed that its four-year performance data showed that English Language was the only one of the four core subjects to record a progressive decline during the period.
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