Viral claim of BECE results being changed exposes confusion over WAEC’s two grading systems
The claim is going viral again. “WAEC has changed my son’s BECE results.”
The latest to make the allegation is the Mawerehene of Adoagyiri, Nana Otuo Siriboe Safo Kankam, who has threatened to petition the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) on Monday and proceed to court. He stated:
> “My son’s results have been changed. I now believe the claims by private schools that WAEC marked the students down. I will petition WAEC on Monday and proceed to court if the matter is not resolved.”
He attached two results as evidence. But a careful look at the two slips attached shows the respected chief may have compared two completely different grading systems, and not two WAEC results.
The Evidence: What The Two Slips Really Show
Slip 1 (The EXCELLENT slip):
Shows subjects with numbers 1, 2 and remarks: EXCELLENT. e.g., ENGLISH LANG. 2 EXCELLENT, SOCIAL STUD. 1 EXCELLENT.
Slip 2 (The AVERAGE slip):
Shows the same subjects with numbers 3,4,5,6 and remarks: HIGH, HIGH AVERAGE, AVERAGE, LOW AVERAGE. e.g., ENGLISH LANG. 4 HIGH AVERAGE, SOCIAL STUD. 5 AVERAGE.
THE FACT-CHECK: This Is Where The Mistake Happened
Investigations by GhanaTalk.com show that WAEC does NOT grade BECE with “EXCELLENT”, “HIGH”, “AVERAGE” or “LOW AVERAGE”.
1. WAEC’s Official BECE Grading is 1-9. Grade 1 is the highest (Best), Grade 9 is the lowest. That is the ONLY grading WAEC uses on its official portal (eresults.waecgh.org).
2. Where does “EXCELLENT” come from then?* The first slip with “EXCELLENT” is NOT a WAEC result slip. It is a translation used by some private third-party result checker websites, schools’ internal mock result systems, and BECE school-based assessment software. They interpret Grade 1 and 2 as “EXCELLENT” to make it understandable for parents. It is NOT WAEC’s language.
3. Where does “HIGH, AVERAGE” come from? The second slip with “HIGH, AVERAGE, LOW AVERAGE” is the STANINE descriptor used in WAEC’s official grading interpretation guide. WAEC uses this to interpret the 1-9 grades.
– Grades 1-2 = Higher
– Grades 3-4 = High
– Grade 5 = Average etc. (Slight variations exist by year)
So, what really happened?
Both slips are showing the SAME RESULT, but with different dictionaries.
Slip 1 says: ENGLISH 2 = EXCELLENT
Slip 2 says: ENGLISH 4 = HIGH AVERAGE
These are TWO DIFFERENT SUBJECTS or TWO DIFFERENT CHECKS. In fact, the numbers (grades) on both slips are different — Slip 1 shows Social Studies as Grade 1, while Slip 2 shows it as Grade 5. This means the candidate’s actual WAEC grade is what is on the official WAEC portal.
What is more likely is that the first “EXCELLENT” slip was either:
a) A school’s mock/terminal exam result that the parent mistook for WAEC results, or
b) A fake result generated by a non-WAEC website that displays inflated grades to drive traffic, which later corrected to show the true grades from WAEC’s database.
What Should Parents Do?
Educationists are advising parents not to rely on third-party checker apps and websites that add words like “Excellent” or “Fail”.
To verify your ward’s authentic BECE result:
1. Go to the official WAEC portal: eresults.waecgh.org
2. Use the official checker, not a private school portal.
3. The authentic result will show ONLY Grades 1-9, not “Excellent” or “Average”.
The Bigger Picture
While the Mawerehene’s specific evidence appears to be a case of comparing two different grading interpretations, the broader concern raised by private schools about mass poor performance this year still needs a transparent response from WAEC. WAEC is expected to address the public on Monday when the petition is filed.
The two slips attached are not proof of WAEC changing results. They are proof of two different software systems interpreting grades differently. The chief’s son’s official WAEC result is the one with grades 3,4,5,6 — which corresponds to “High” and “Average” on the Stanine scale.
Alexander Afriyie, supervising editor, ghanacrimereport.com and ghanatalk.com