The Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS) has called on the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) to urgently audit and reconcile the provisional results of the 2026 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), citing what it describes as serious discrepancies in grades issued to candidates.
In a press statement issued on Wednesday, August 5, GNAPS General Secretary Kennedy Donkor said the Association has received numerous complaints from member schools across the country over inconsistencies in the results released by WAEC.
According to the Association, some candidates were awarded grades in subjects they neither registered for nor wrote, while others received results that do not reflect their academic performance.
GNAPS also raised concerns over what it described as unexplained failures among some candidates.
One case highlighted by the Association involved a candidate who registered for and sat the Ghanaian Language paper in Twi but did not register for or write Ewe. Despite this, the candidate was reportedly awarded a grade in Ewe.
GNAPS said the incident is not isolated, noting that similar complaints have been reported by schools in several regions.
The Association stressed that it supports WAEC’s efforts to detect and sanction examination malpractice but insisted that the concerns it has raised relate to possible administrative and technical errors in the processing of examination results.
“These are errors of collation and attribution, administrative and technical failures in the processing of results that, if they are not corrected, will deny hardworking and deserving children the results they earned,” the statement said.
GNAPS has therefore urged WAEC to conduct an immediate audit and reconciliation of all affected results to identify and correct any errors.
It further called on the examination body to ensure that every candidate receives results that accurately reflect the subjects they wrote and their actual performance.
The Association also appealed to WAEC to award grades strictly on merit, without any bias based on whether a candidate attended a public or private school.
GNAPS expressed particular concern over what it described as an unusually high failure rate among candidates from private schools, arguing that in many instances the released grades differ significantly from students’ continuous assessment records, terminal examination results and mock examination performances.
According to the Association, such wide disparities warrant further investigation and cannot simply be attributed to poor performance by candidates.
The concerns come at a crucial time, as candidates are using the released BECE results to select their preferred senior high schools and technical institutions under the national placement system.
GNAPS warned that inaccurate grades could negatively affect students’ school choices and future academic opportunities if the alleged discrepancies are not addressed promptly.
The Association said it is currently compiling complaints from member schools across the country and warned that if WAEC fails to investigate and correct the reported anomalies, its leadership will meet to determine the next course of action.
WAEC recently released the provisional results of the 2026 BECE, which are expected to be used for placement into senior high schools and technical and vocational institutions nationwide.
CREDIT: MAVIS FANTEVI