16 Arrested, 64 Phones Seized During WASSCE – WAEC

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has raised concerns over increasing cases of exam malpractice in this year’s West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School Candidates.

According to WAEC, monitoring teams found cases of impersonation, use of mobile phones, and even some invigilators helping candidates to cheat.

Mr. John Kapi, WAEC’s Head of Public Affairs, said 16 people had been arrested at different exam centres. At one school, 64 mobile phones were seized during the Elective Mathematics paper.

In Kasoa, two people caught impersonating candidates at Ghana College were each jailed for six months, while a third person received an eight-month sentence. At Christian IPS in Kukurantumi, a proprietor and an invigilator are under police investigation for sharing exam questions through a WhatsApp group.

Other schools, including St. Vincent College and Yeji Senior High School, also recorded incidents, although some suspects managed to escape.

Mr. Kapi condemned the actions, saying: “We urge all school heads to protect the trust placed in them and ensure their schools remain honest.” He added that answer scripts from affected schools would be checked carefully, and WAEC would deal firmly with anyone found guilty.

WAEC is also still investigating withheld results from the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) to determine if some candidates worked together unfairly.

This year’s WASSCE started on August 5, 2025, with 461,640 candidates from 1,021 schools, and will end on September 19, 2025. The BECE was written in June, and provisional results were released on August 23, 2025.

WAEC says it will continue working to protect the credibility of Ghana’s exams and ensure fairness for all students.