The West African Examination Council (WAEC) says it will not allow some 46 candidates of the 2021 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) who had their entire results cancelled to resit the papers for two years.

The sanction will also affect candidates guilty of impersonation.

The Public Relations Officer of WAEC, Winifred Ampiaw, said: “in the case of impersonation, aside from your entire results being cancelled, you will be barred from taking the Council’s examination for two years.

“If you fall within that category, you will not be able to resit. So for now, you would have to wait for the period to be over before you can resit.”

According to Winifred Ampiaw, a window will be opened for people who want to resit subjects for various reasons.

“For that window, the period has not been communicated yet,” Mrs Ampiaw said.

On Monday, WAEC announced the release of results for the 2021 edition of the basic examination.

The Council in a statement noted that the subject results of 138 candidates have been cancelled for the offence of either bringing in foreign materials into the examination hall or colluding with other candidates.

The subject results of 148 candidates and the entire results of 109 candidates have been withheld pending conclusion into investigations of alleged malpractice.

A total of 572,167 candidates made up of 287,730 males and 284,437 females sat for the examination.

Among the registered candidates, 61 had visual impairment and 321 were identified with hearing impairment.

In addition, 86 candidates had special needs due to other conditions.

According to the Council, the total number of candidates for last year increased by 7.61% as compared to the number for 2020, which was 531,707.

In all, 18,028 schools presented candidates for the examination, which was administered at 2,158 centres. As a result, 7,315 representing 1.28%, were absent out of the total number of candidates who registered for the exams.