The West Africa examinations Council (WAEC) has cancelled the entire results of 480 candidates for bringing mobile phones to the examination hall.

Regrettably, the Council has equally cancelled another 2, 383 results of candidates for engaging in collusion, bringing foreign material to the examination hall and tearing parts of their question paper to solicit assistance.

WAEC in a press release to announce the provisional results of 2020, said it has also withheld entire results of 384 candidates, pending the conclusion of investigation into various cases of examination malpractice detected during and after the conduct of the exams.

It further said, time scripts of candidates from 122 schools in certain subjects are under scrutiny, adding the results withdrawal of results may be either cancelled or released based on the outcome of the investigations.

Despite these irregularities, this year’s West African Senior School Examination Certificate (WASSEC) results are an improvements in the performance of candidates, specifically in Mathematics and English language over last year’s.

Thus, out the 375, 7630 candidates who sat for the WASSEC, 65.71% (242,904) gained grade A-C6 in Mathematics, a percentage increase over 65.31% in 2019 and English language, 57.34% (212,866) passed as against 48.96% in 2019.

Hitherto, the outstanding performance in care maths and English, the 2020 WASSEC candidates could not outshined the 2019 year group in Integrated Science and Social Studies.

This is as performance in Integrated Science declined from 63.17% in 2019 to 52.53% in 2020 and Social Studies, 75.43% in 2019 to 64.31 in 2020.

WAEC assured parents and guardians that the results of the candidates will be dispatched to their schools or can be accessed online at the Council’s website: www.waecgh.org

The Council also cautioned all stakeholders, especially candidates to be wary of fake results websites and the activities of fraudsters who promise to upgrade results for a fee, warning candidates that all WAEC results secured and can be authenticated.

Institutions are also advised to verify results presented to them to deter the incidents of forgery.

By Akutu Dede Adimer