The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has announced plans to appeal a court ruling that ordered the release of withheld West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results.
This development comes after an Accra High Court dismissed WAEC’s application in a case brought by four students representing all affected candidates whose results were withheld over alleged irregularities and malpractices.
The controversy surrounding the withheld results began when WAEC announced the cancellation of subject results for 4,108 candidates caught with foreign materials in the exam hall and the complete annulment of results for 483 candidates found with mobile phones during the examination.
Additionally, subject results for 781 candidates were withheld pending further review, while 209 candidates faced the possibility of losing their entire results due to various suspected offences.
WAEC’s decision to withhold the results was met with resistance from affected students, who claimed that the examination body had failed to specify the nature of the alleged irregularities that led to the withholding of the results.
The student’s legal representative, Martin Kpebu, argued that WAEC’s actions were unfair and unjust.
Despite the court’s ruling, WAEC’s Head of Legal Affairs, Rev. Victor Brew, assured that the withheld results would still be released on February 28, except for those directly involved in the ongoing legal proceedings.
“We are going to repeat the stay of execution application at the court of appeal in line with what is established procedure in court matters.
“As for 28th [February], it is for the generality of all outstanding results and just to clarify these are just a portion of all the outstanding results. So even as these 10,000 candidates went to court, we are still working and so 28th is a date to say that all results finally would have been worked on.
“Those that are exonerated, they would have their results uncanceled. Those that will be found culpable will have their results canceled. Perhaps the only group of people will be those students who took us to court, and we have to respect the court procedure.”
He noted that the results set to be released on February 28 will still include candidates who failed to appear before WAEC for questioning over their withheld results.
However, the ongoing controversy surrounding the withheld WASSCE results has sparked debate over the balance between protecting academic integrity and ensuring that students are not unfairly penalized.
-BY Daniel Bampoe
