The Head of Public Affairs at the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), John Kapi, has explained that the Council’s examination processes make it impossible for examiners to know whether scripts they mark are from public or private schools.
Speaking on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem morning show, Mr Kapi said examiners are not given information that identifies the type of school from which a candidate’s script originated.
“Per the WAEC system, an examiner doesn’t know whether the scripts are from a public or private school,” he said.
He explained that scripts are deliberately moved to different jurisdictions for marking to further prevent examiners from identifying the schools or candidates associated with them.
“If you are an examiner and we have given you scripts to go and mark, you can’t even tell where the scripts come from. If you are in Accra, your scripts will be taken to a different jurisdiction to be marked,” he said.
According to Mr Kapi, the system is designed in such a way that an examiner cannot determine whether a particular script belongs to a candidate from a private or public school and, therefore, deliberately treat it differently.
“There is no way our system will allow someone to know that these scripts are from a private school and decide to mark them anyhow,” he stressed.
Mr Kapi also explained how answer scripts are packaged before they are distributed to examiners.
He said the envelopes used to package the scripts, known as script envelopes, contain only a centre number and the range of index numbers of the candidates whose scripts are enclosed.
“What we use to pack the answer scripts are called script envelopes. The only thing we write on the envelope is a centre number and the range of index numbers,” he explained.
He said an examiner who receives a script envelope would only see the centre number and the number of scripts enclosed.
“If you get a script envelope, it will show you the centre and the number of scripts enclosed. That is what you will see on the envelope,” he said.
Mr Kapi added that although the candidate’s name and index number appear on the individual answer script, there is no indication of whether the candidate attends a public or private school.
“If you open it, you will only see the names and index numbers on the scripts, but you won’t know whether the candidate is in a private or public school,” he stated.
His comments come amid concerns from some private schools and parents over the 2026 BECE results, with allegations that some schools may have been unfairly targeted during the examination and results-processing exercise.
WAEC, however, maintains that its processes are guided by established examination rules and procedures and has challenged anyone alleging deliberate targeting of private schools to provide concrete evidence to support the claims.
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