The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has dismissed suggestions that candidates from private schools may have been disadvantaged in the marking of the 2026 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), insisting that examiners do not know the origin of the scripts they assess.
The clarification follows concerns raised by the Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS), which has alleged discrepancies in this year’s BECE results and called for an audit.
Speaking on Joy News, WAEC’s Head of Public Affairs, John Kapi, explained that the Council’s marking process is designed to ensure fairness by concealing candidates’ identities and school affiliations from examiners.
According to him, scripts are identified only by centre numbers and candidate ranges, making it impossible for examiners to distinguish whether a script belongs to a candidate from a private or public school.
“We examine all of them the same way,” he said.
“If you were to bring scripts and tell me that these are from school A or school B, I’ll not be able to identify unless I go back to the database and check which school centre number this is or that.”
Mr Kapi stressed that all candidates are assessed using the same marking schemes and standards, regardless of the schools they attended.
His comments come after the Ghana National Association of Private Schools claimed it had received reports from member schools across the country alleging inconsistencies in this year’s results, including grades that do not reflect candidates’ academic performance and subjects that candidates allegedly did not register for.
The Association has called on WAEC to investigate the concerns and reconcile any affected results.
Responding to the concerns, Mr Kapi maintained that the integrity of the marking process remains intact because examiners work solely with coded scripts rather than school identities.
He reiterated that the Council applies the same assessment standards to every candidate.
