The provisional results of candidates who sat for the 2020 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) have been released by the West African Examination Council (WAEC).

The Council announced in a statement dated Wednesday, December 16 and signed by the Head of Affairs, Agnes Teye-Cudjoe, that the results will be dispatched to the various Junior High Schools through Metropolitan, Municipal and District Directors of Education.

Alternatively, candidates can access their results online by visiting the Council’s official website – www.waecgh.org.

Meanwhile, according to the statement, subject results of some 417 finalists have been cancelled "for bringing foreign material into the examination hall and engaging in collusion".

The entire results of 44 other candidates have been cancelled by WAEC for bringing mobile phones into the examination hall.

These, in addition to the Final Awards and Examiners' Appointment Committee for the BECE's decision to withhold results of 977 other candidates follow the conclusion of investigation into reported cases of alleged examination malpractices during the conduct of the examination.

"The withheld results of candidates may be cancelled or released based on the outcome of investigations," WAEC notes.

Statistics

A total of 531,707 candidates from 17, 436 schools sat for the 2020 Basic Education Certificate Examination. Of the sum, 269,408 comprised males whiles 262,299 were females.

The figure represents a 2.78% increase in the number of candidates that sat for the BECE in 2019.

Across the 2,012 examination centres nationwide, 1.59% of candidates who initially registered were absent.