WAEC recovers BECE, WASSCE website after hackers took it offline

After hours of downtime as a result of a cyber attack, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has recovered its official website (https://www.waecgh.org) which in the early hours of October 16, 2023, was compromised by hackers.

Earlier replaced with gambling content, all educational content including links to download the 2023 Nov/Dec timetable, check examination results, register for WASSE or BECE Private featured on the website have been restored.

An official of WAEC who confirmed the site recovery to AcademicWeek.com said adequate measures have been put in place by the non-profit-making organization to ensure future cyber attacks on https://www.waecgh.org are prevented.

Asked if the Monday hack incident is possible to affect the 2023 results of the Basic Education Certificate Examination and West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) to be uploaded on the site, the WAEC staff replied no.

The provisional results of a total of 447,204 candidates, comprising 211,834 males and 235,370 females who sat for the Ghana version of WASSCE for School at 834 centres are expected to be released at a date yet to be announced by WAEC.

The total candidature represents an increase of 24,321 over last year’s candidature of 422,883. final-year students from 975 second-cycle schools participated in the national examination written for the second time in Ghana.

For the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), a total of 600,714 candidates, representing 300,323 boys and 300,391 girls from 18,993 participated Junior High Schools are waiting for their provisional results to be released.

The 2023 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) for School Candidates was held at 2,137 examination centres across the country, while 15 centres mainly in the regional capitals were used for the BECE for Private candidates.

To ensure the smooth and successful conduct of the 2023 BECE for School and Private, a total of 2,137 supervisors, 2,000 supervisors and 21,027 invigilators were tasked to oversee the administration of the national examination.

In a related development, the Ministry of Education (MoE) is yet to renew the expired domain name of the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) Secretariat website (https://freeshs.net) which hosts the 2023 school selection guidelines video.