By Emmanuel Mbowa
Freetown, 27th October 2026-The Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) has withheld the results of 47,454 candidates who sat the 2026 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), citing suspected examination malpractice and announcing a major investigation into the surge in irregularities.
Speaking during the release of the 2026 WASSCE results, Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, Conrad Sackey, disclosed that the withheld results comprise 26,735 female candidates and 20,719 male candidates.
He said the decision followed concerns raised by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) over suspected breaches of examination regulations.
“After investigation, WAEC may release some or all of the withheld results,” Sackey assured.
The Minister explained that, aside from five private schools whose results were not included in the batch submitted to the ministry, all other withheld results stemmed from suspected examination malpractice identified by WAEC.
According to Sackey, details of the reasons for withholding the results have been published on the ministry’s website. He noted that the reported irregularities range from candidate collusion and answer-sharing within examination halls to the use of social media platforms and artificial intelligence tools to obtain and distribute answers across multiple examination centres and geographical locations.
“The list of reasons differentiates between collusion, localized sharing of answers within the same examination hall, and the use of social media platforms and AI to obtain answers which are then shared across centres,” he explained.
The sharp increase in withheld results has alarmed education authorities. In 2025, WAEC withheld 13,237 results, compared to 47,454 this year.
Sackey said while the increase could partly be attributed to stricter monitoring and enforcement measures introduced by the ministry, the magnitude of the rise warrants further investigation.
“It may be that the strict monitoring led by the MBSSE resulted in more cheats being caught; however, the scale of the increase is such that the ministry will take a deeper look into the matter,” he said.
Despite the concerns, the Minister announced the names of the country’s top-performing candidates.
Leading the national rankings is Alfred Farwell Thorpe of Sierra Leone Grammar School, who sat eight subjects and earned six A1 grades, one B3, and one C4, achieving an impressive average grade unit of 1.63.
He was closely followed by Syllawa Alie of Kamboi Lebanese Senior Secondary School in Kenema, who obtained four A1 grades, two B2s, and two B3s across eight subjects, recording an average grade unit of 1.75.
Awada Senior Secondary School in Bo emerged as the best-performing school in the country. Of the school’s candidates whose results were released, 96.7 percent obtained credits or better in at least five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics.
The 2026 examination cycle recorded a significant increase in participation. A total of 201,124 candidates from 1,043 schools registered for the examination, compared to 148,113 candidates from 886 schools in 2025.
However, the results of five private schools, involving 368 candidates, were not included in the list submitted by WAEC to the ministry, leaving a total of 200,756 candidates from 1,038 schools reflected in the official results received by MBSSE.
Of those candidates, 113,310 were female and 87,446 were male, meaning females accounted for 56.5 percent of total entries, continuing the trend of higher female participation in WASSCE examinations.
The Minister revealed that 141,810 candidates sat at least one paper and had their results released. These included 80,085 females and 61,725 males.
He also disclosed that 11,492 candidates, comprising 6,490 females and 5,002 males, appeared to have been absent for all subjects. Although the figure remains concerning, it marks a significant reduction from the 35,020 absentees recorded in 2025.
“The number of absentees is much lower than in 2025, but it remains unacceptably high. The ministry will continue investigating the causes and strengthen measures already introduced to address the issue,” Sackey said.
Candidates have been encouraged to verify whether their results have been withheld by visiting WAEC Sierra Leone’s irregularities portal.
The release of the results comes amid growing concerns over examination integrity in the country, with education authorities now facing the dual challenge of expanding access to schooling while safeguarding the credibility of public examinations.
