Some parents in Accra have expressed concern about the yearly cancellation of results of the West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and attributed the phenomenon to the negligence of invigilators.

On December 8, 2021, WAEC released the provisional results for this year out of which the entire results of 174 candidates have been cancelled.

The results were cancelled for examination malpractices, including possession of mobile phones in the examination hall, tearing off parts of question papers and collusion.

Madam Sarah Amoabeng, a parent, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said examination malpractices keeps coming up yearly because invigilators fail to do a thorough search on the candidates before allowing them into the examination halls.

‘‘We all know they search the children before they enter the examination halls, so how do they sneak these foreign materials into the examination halls for them to be caught later,’’ she asked?

Madam Amoabeng said it is disheartening for parents to know their children’s results have been cancelled because it means extra cost in preparing them for re-sit of the examinations.

She said apart from the cost, ‘‘…Some of the children may not be mentally fit for the exams,’’ and appealed to the invigilators and examination officials to do due diligence in the discharge of their responsibilities to completely stop examination malpractices.

Kwabena Yeboah, a mechanic and father of four, alleged that some invigilators aid some candidates to cheat and must be held responsible.

Charles Mensah, another parent, said the only way to stop examination malpractices is to tighten invigilation.

Meanwhile, some students, who sat for this year’s WASSCE, said they are happy with the provisional results released.

Some Visual Arts students said they had difficulties with the core subjects but were satisfied with their electives.

Meanwhile, a press release issued and signed by Agnes Teye-Cudjoe, Head of Public Relations of WAEC, said the cancellation of the results were approved by the 31st meeting of the Ghana Examinations Committee, held in October this year.

It said a total of 3, 667 results were withheld pending the conclusion of investigations into various cases of malpractices during and after the examination.

In 2020, a total of 2,283 candidates’ results were cancelled for flouting the examination’s regulations by taking foreign materials to the examination halls and the results of 384 candidates were withheld for investigations.