The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has directed the 471 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates whose results have been withheld to make themselves available at regional offices for a hearing.
According to WAEC, it had done its own investigations and would also want to hear from the candidates before concluding investigations into their alleged irregularities during this year’s BECE in June.
In a public notice published in the Friday, October 19, 2018 edition of the Daily Graphic newspaper, WAEC put out the index numbers and schools of the affected candidates and the WAEC offices where they are supposed to report to
The candidates have to report to the various WAEC offices on October 25.
“The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) is in the process of concluding its investigations into alleged examination irregularities that occurred during the BECE for School Candidates, 2018. In the light of the above, headmaster of the … schools are kindly requested to liaise with the metropolitan, municipal and district directors of education to present the candidates with the following index numbers to the WAEC Branch Office on the dates stated.
“It is important to note that failure of the parties concerned to comply with the notice shall compel the council to take action as appropriate,” WAEC said in the publication.
Details
Throwing more light on the publication, the Head of Public Affairs of WAEC, Mrs Agnes Teye-Cudjoe, said WAEC decided to publish the index numbers and schools of the candidates because it was finding it difficult to get to them.
“When we are doing the investigations we go through the headmasters and education directors. Some of the heads tell you that they have not been able to get in touch with the students and we want to use every available means to be able to reach out to them,” she said.
She said the council believed that the publication in the Daily Graphic would go a long way to get the candidates, adding that “we are serious about getting the candidates”.
Again Mrs Agnes Teye-Cudjoe said the publication was a proof that the council had given enough notice to candidates for hearing because “we want to conclude the investigations and move”.
Available means
“That is why we want to use every available means that we want to reach them”.
Each candidate, the WAEC PRO said, had certain subjects being withheld, and that it was not all their subjects that had been affected.
“Their results are being held for particular subjects. Unless it is an impersonation, we would withhold a particular subject, some English, some Mathematics.
“This is the first time we are doing a publication like this,” he said.
Mrs Agnes Teye-Cudjoe said although the evidence against each of the candidates was very strong it was just fair to hear from them.
Cancellation
She said if the candidates failed to show up the council would have no option but to cancel the results, saying that the objective of the exercise was to finish up before the Green Track people got to school on November 8.
“We want to finish this before the Green Track students go to school on November 8. You know some of them are waiting for these results so that they can go to school. That is our target and we are working to make sure that we finish everything and conclude our investigations so that those who can be placed can go ahead and be placed,” she said.
She said candidates of schools in Accra who had their results withheld had submitted themselves to the council and that it was left with those in the other regions.
Source: Daily Graphic | Ghana
