Provisional results for the 2017 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) released on Wednesday show marginal improvements in the scores for English and Maths, however, there is a dip in performance for Social Studies and Integrated Science.

The West African Examination Council (WAEC) report on students’ performance are as follows:

English Language

155,077 {54.06%) obtained A1-C6; 73,409 (25.59%) obtained D7-E8 while 58,351 (20.35%) had F9;

 Mathematics

(Core): 122,450 (42.73%) obtained A1-C6; 106,024 (37%) obtained D7-E8 while 58,070 (20.27%) had F9;

 Integrated Science

125,204 (43.66%) obtained A1-C6; 84,851 (29.59%) obtained D7-E8 whilst 76,693 (26.75%) had F9;

 Social Studies

149,806 (52.25%) obtained A1-C6; 69,795 (24.35%) obtained D7-E8 whilst 67,078 (23.40%) had F9.

“Based on the provisional results, the performance at A1-C6 in Mathematics showed a marked improvement over that of 2016 (32.83% to 42.73%), while English Language recorded a slight improvement (53.19% to 54.06%). On the contrary, Integrated Science showed slight drop from the 2016 performance (48.48% to 43.66%),” said release from WAEC. Similarly, there was a drop in the performance in Social Studies (54.93% to 52.25%)," according to the release from WAEC.

Statistics

A total of 289,210 candidates entered for the examination.

This figure is 5.45% higher than the 2016 candidature of 274,262.

The 2017 entry figure was made up of 147,591 (51 %) males and 141,619 (49 %) females.

The examination was conducted for 916 participating schools.

A total of 1,732 {0.60%) of the candidates who registered were absent from the examination.

Malpractice

The entire results of candidates from 185 schools have been withheld pending the conclusion of investigations into various cases of examination malpractice detected during and after the conduct of the examination.

This includes results of candidates from 31 schools who were detected by the Item Differentia Profile (IDP) software to have cheated in objective tests.

The withheld results of candidates will be cancelled if found culpable or released if otherwise.

Concluding, WAEC expressed appreciation to all stakeholders especially the Ministry of Education, Ghana Education Service, Supervisors, Invigilators, the Ghana Police Service, Examiners and all who in various ways helped in the successful conduct of the examination and the timeous release of results.

The council is alerting members of the public especially candidates to beware of impostors who promise to change examination results for a fee.

It said candidates are to note that all WAEC results are well secured and can be authenticated and that persons with forged results will be exposed.