The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has released the provisional results of the 2014 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). Out of the 420,188 candidates from 12,562 schools who wrote the examination, 11,759 candidates from 337 schools have had their results withheld pending the conclusion of investigations into alleged examination malpractices. A statement signed by the Principal Public Affairs Officer of WAEC, Mrs Agnes Teye-Cudjoe, explained that the Stanine grading system was used for the BECE, with Grade One as the highest and Grade Nine the lowest. Stanine (Standard NINE) is a method of scaling test scores on a nine-point standard scale with a mean of five and a standard deviation of two. Thirteen of the candidates had their candidature nullified because they were found not to be bona fide students of the schools which registered them for the examination and that their continuous assessment scores had been forged. The statement further said 398 candidates had their subject results cancelled. The affected candidates, it said, were involved in various examination malpractices such as bringing foreign materials into the examination hall and collusion. “Further, the entire results of 64 candidates have been cancelled. These include those who brought mobile phones to the examination hall and received external assistance,” it added. The statement said the council was in the process of despatching the results to the schools through the municipal/district directors of education. “Meanwhile, the council has hosted the results online, and candidates who so desire may access their results online at the council’s website using a scratch card,” it advised. A total of 422,946 candidates, made up of 219,394 males and 194,854 females, registered for the examination. The figure was 8.15 per cent higher than that of the previous year. The candidates were from 12,562 schools and the examination was conducted at 1,431 centres. The WAEC statement explained that 2,758 candidates, representing 0.59 per cent of those who had initially registered for the examination, were absent. Source: myjoyonline.com
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