460,000 WASSCE candidates’ fate hangs - WAEC awaits funds to complete marking

The fate of over 460,611 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) School Candidates (SC) hangs in the balance as the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) struggles to complete the process to release their results.

For instance, the examination body has not been able to complete the marking of scripts because it requires enormous funding to procure a new scanner or repair the old ones to scan the objective cards for this year’s WASSCE.

“WAEC is awaiting the release of additional funds out of an outstanding balance of GH¢118 million from the Ministry of Education for the repair of the scanners to carry out the scanning process of the objective cards for this year’s West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School Candidates (SC),” the Head of Public Affairs of WAEC, John Kapi, told the Daily Graphic.

“Currently, we actually have a number of scanners but due to lack of funds, we have not been able to service them as they break down.  That's what has led to the current situation,” he explained.

On behalf of the council, he appealed to examination officials and suppliers to exercise restraint as payment for their services would be made as soon as the needed funds were released from the Ministry of Education.

Update

In an Update on Post Examination Activities, WAEC urged members of the public to ignore information circulating on social media purporting to be dates for the release of results.

“The results will be released as soon as the challenges being experienced with the post-examination activities are resolved,” the update signed by him said.

WAEC, on August 5, 2024, commenced the administration of the 2024 WASSCE-SC and successfully ended on Friday, September 20, 2024.

The marking of the essays and other practical components of the papers which commenced on Friday, November 7 ended on Friday, November 29, 2024.

“Scanning of the objective cards which was scheduled for November 1 to November 30, 2024 is yet to be completed due to the breakdown of scanners used for the process,” the update said.

A total of 460,611 candidates participated in the 2024 WASSCE-SC.

Ghanaian candidates sat the Ghana Only WASSCE-SC for the third successive time because the other four-member countries of WAEC — Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone and The Gambia — have returned to the May/June calendar for WASSCE school candidates.

The ‘new normal’ calendar for Ghana was occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.  

This year's cohort of candidates comprised 247,657 female candidates and 212,954 male candidates from 1,003 schools that registered candidates for the examination.

The examination started on Monday, August 5, this year with the administration of Visual Arts Project Work which ended on Friday, September 20, 2024.

Infractions

In an earlier statement, WAEC said it had identified several infractions in the 2024 examination.

It involved supervisors, invigilators and candidates.

The infractions included the photocopying and distribution of answers to candidates, the smuggling of mobile phones into the examination halls by both candidates and teachers and the concealment of foreign materials by candidates during the exam.

"The council will take appropriate action to ensure that all examination officials and stakeholders who were found culpable are sanctioned in accordance with the appropriate provisions of the rules and regulations governing the conduct of the examination,” a statement from the council said.