The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has rejected claims that it deliberately marks down candidates from private schools in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), describing the allegations as false and without factual basis.
The response follows concerns raised by the Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS) over this year’s provisional BECE results. The association has alleged grading discrepancies that could negatively affect candidates’ placement into senior high schools.
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Addressing a press briefing on Thursday, Head of Public Affairs at WAEC, John Kapi, said the Council’s assessment and grading processes are guided by internationally accepted principles of fairness, consistency, objectivity and integrity.
“These allegations are false, misleading and have no factual basis. WAEC wishes to assure all stakeholders, parents, guardians, educational authorities, school proprietors and the public that the Council’s assessment and grading processes are guided by internationally accepted principles of fairness, consistency, objectivity and integrity,” he said.
Mr Kapi stressed that WAEC does not discriminate against candidates based on whether they attend public or private schools, insisting that all examination scripts are marked using the same standards and procedures.
He explained that the Council uses the stanine grading system for the BECE, which assesses candidates based on their performance relative to the overall performance of all candidates.
According to him, the system is designed to ensure fairness and is applied uniformly to all candidates regardless of the schools they attend.
Responding to GNAPS’ call for an independent audit of the BECE results, Mr Kapi said WAEC has no objection to such an exercise, provided the scope is clearly defined and the process is undertaken by competent experts.
He also urged stakeholders with concerns about the BECE results to use WAEC’s established channels to seek clarification rather than rely on speculation.
His comments come after GNAPS called on WAEC to conduct an immediate audit of the provisional 2026 BECE results, citing what it described as widespread grading discrepancies that could affect candidates’ placement into senior high schools.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, August 5, GNAPS said it had received numerous reports from member schools across all 16 regions alleging inconsistencies in the results released by WAEC.
The association argued that the reported anomalies raised concerns about the accuracy of the results collation process and the integrity of grades awarded to some candidates.
WAEC released the provisional results of the 2026 BECE on Wednesday, July 29, announcing that the subject results of 601 candidates had been cancelled for engaging in examination malpractice.
The Council also withheld the entire results of 167 candidates and the subject results of 2,722 others pending the conclusion of investigations into suspected examination irregularities.
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