Four Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates have been prosecuted by the West African Examination Council (WAEC), for engaging in various examination malpractice. The candidates, who have consequently been convicted, are part of 19 others. The 4 convicted have been charged between GHC1,200 and GHC3,000, based on the penalty units. Investigation has begun on 13
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Four Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates have been prosecuted by the West African Examination Council (WAEC), for engaging in various examination malpractice.
The candidates, who have consequently been convicted, are part of 19 others.
The 4 convicted have been charged between GHC1,200 and GHC3,000, based on the penalty units.
Investigation has begun on 13 of the cases while prosecution is ongoing in respect of 2 cases.
Head of Legal at the Council, Rev. Victor Brew said this is part of efforts to protect the integrity of the examinations.
“We have done some prosecutions with 4 candidates convicted and fined. We believe this should let the public know that we are very concerned about the cases of examination malpractice, and we will act on all,” he warned.
Rev Brew, made a case for a review of the current sanction regime to deter others.
”The current penalty points in the law translates into a fine of between GHC1,200 to GHC3,000, which is not deterrent enough. If we can have a change in it to an amount that is hefty, then we can make some head way and deter others,” he added.
Head of Public Affairs at WAEC, John Kapi indicated that a new trend of examination malpractice emerging, whereby some candidates hide money and contact numbers in answer booklets in a bid to influence their exam results.
The contact numbers come with the inscriptions, call me, help me, call my mom, to appeal to the examiners.
Mr Kapi said “The Council is recording a high number of cases where candidates write telephone numbers or the phrase “help me”, “call me”, “just call my mom” in their answer booklets and add GHC50 or more to it.
A recent study by the West African Examination Council revealed a worrying trend of rising examination malpractice in the country. The period between 2021 and 2023, showed a significant increase in the percentage of candidates involved in examination malpractice from 2% in 2021 to 10% in 2023.
“Mr Kapi said their Staff, Ghana Education Service, and GNAT, personnel from the Ghana Police Service, National Security, National Intelligence Bureau as well as external monitoring agents have been recruited by the Council to monitor the examinations.
This year’s BECE will begin from Monday July 8 and end on Monday July 15, with 569,095 students expected to sit the exam.
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‘Call me, help me, call my mom’ and GHC50 is new exam malpractice by candidates – WAEC
