The West African Examination Council (WAEC) says at least 598 candidates who sat in the 2016 West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) had their “entire results cancelled.”

A copy of a provisional report signed by the Public Relations Officer of WAEC, Agnes Teye-Cudjoe, said out of the 274,262 candidates who took the examination, 2,184 candidates had issues with their results.

A breakdown shows:

1. 1,576 candidates had their subjects results cancelled
2. 598 candidates had their entire results cancelled;
3. 13 candidates had their entire results cancelled and have been barred from taking any of the Council’s examinations for 2 (two) years mainly for impersonation during the examination.

According to the statement, about 2,293 candidates who were identified to have cheated in English Language, Mathematics and Integrated Science had their “relevant subject results cancelled.”

This, the statement said was made possible with the help of a software called Item Differentia Profile (IDP).

“The software did not detect any cheating in Social Studies,” the statement said.

The provisional results also said the entire results of candidates presented by 85 schools have been withheld pending end of investigation on alleged mass cheating.

WAEC said the withheld results of candidates will be “cancelled if found culpable or released if otherwise.”

The performance of the candidates in the four core subjects is as below:

English Language: 125,065 (53.19%) obtained Al-C6; 59,725 (25.40%) obtained D7-E8 whilst 46,595 (19.82%) had F9;

Mathematics: 77,108 (32.83%) obtained Al-C6; 65,007 (27.68%) obtained D7-E8 whilst  89,477 (38.10%)  had F9;