86 phones were seized during WASSCE government paper – WAEC

During the government paper of the 2023 WASSCE, more than eighty mobile phones were seized from candidates at Otoo Memorial SHS, Bibiani, a spokesperson for the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has disclosed.

The Head of Public Affairs, WAEC National Office, Mr John K. Kapi, at a press conference, to give an update on the conduct of the 2023 WASSCE for school candidates said some candidates were also caught with smartwatches.

Describing examination malpractice as the worst form of WASSCE fraud, John Kapi warned candidates that should they be caught using mobile devices in examination halls, their entire examination would be cancelled.

The WAEC official also told journalists that the non-profit-making organization have obtained evidence on some school heads who took shots of question papers whilst transporting them from the depot to the examination centre.

“This trend of snapping sight question papers of ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination and posting solutions to same is very worrying and undermines the integrity of the examination

Information reaching us indicates that some of the Senior High Schools charged their candidates varying sums of money ranging between five hundred and thousand cedis to enable them to get assistance during the examination

This practice has given those candidates a certain sense of entitlement and they want to be allowed to have their way,” the Public Relations Officer for the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) told the press at the conference.

He said WAEC has received reports of impersonation and insertion of scripts adding that at Only Believe Senior High School at Kukurantumi in the Eastern Region, a national service person attempted to write the government paper for one of the candidates but was caught.

“At the same centre, two other suspected impersonators absconded. One impersonator and his accomplice a teacher, were arrested at Christian IPS, Kukurantumi,” the spokesperson for the Examinations Council told journalists.

Giving an update on the conduct of the Ghana version of the international examination he said “At the Ideal College, Lapaz Campus, there was an attempt to insert scripts of seven absentee candidates into the script’s envelopes.”

A total of 447,204 candidates, representing 211,834 males and 235,370 females from 975 Senior High Schools are writing the examination. This figure indicates an increase of 5.8% compared to the 2022 entry figure of 422,883.