The West Africa Examinations Council (WAEC) has said it regrets wrongly citing Action Secondary Technical School (ASTS) at Madina for examination malpractice during its Friday, 16 September 2022 update to the media.

“During the Council's second update to the media on September 16, 2022, Action Secondary Technical School, Madina, was wrongly cited as one of the schools caught engaging in syndicate cheating,” WAEC said in a statement issued on Thursday, 1 December 2022 in which it announced the release of provisional results for school candidates who sat the West Africa Senior Schools Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

According to WAEC, “the school that should have been named in the alleged case of syndicate cheating was Madina Senior High School, who were writing their examination at Action Secondary Technical School (ASTS).”

“The Council deeply regrets any embarrassment caused to ASTS as a result of the error,” the statement noted. 

WAEC cautioned “all stakeholders, especially candidates, to be on the alert and not fall prey to the activities of scammers who promise to upgrade results for a fee.”

It reminded the candidates that “all WAEC results are secured and can be authenticated using the results verification system or by downloading the WAECQR Code” while urging institutions “to always verify results presented to them to expose incidents of forgery.”

Meanwhile, WAEC has announced the cancellation of the entire results of some 518 candidates who sat the 2022 WASSCE.

In all, a total of 422,883 candidates made up of 219,130 females and 203,753 males sat this year’s examination.

“The subject results of 3,845 candidates have been cancelled for sending foreign material into the examination hall,” WAEC said while announcing the release of the results.

Also, “the entire results of 518 candidates have been cancelled for sending mobile phones into the examination hall.”

Additionally, WAEC has withheld “the entire results of 117 candidates,” pending the “conclusion of investigations into alleged cases of impersonation detected during the examination.”

Furthermore, “the scripts of candidates from 179 schools in certain subjects are being scrutinised for reported cases of collusion.”

WAEC, has indicated that: “The withheld results of candidates may be cancelled or released based on the outcome of the investigations.”