A total of 5,653 candidates out of the 409,711 who sat the 2013 May/June West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE), were punished by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), for various offences.
This is against the 3,439 candidates caught cheating in 2012, out of the 173,655 candidates who wrote the examinations; and 4,201 caught out of the 148,697 candidates in 2011.
As stated by statistics released to The Ghanaian Times by WAEC, the malpractices had increased at both the WASSCE and the Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE), over the past three years.
This year, the similarities in the scripts of candidates detected or reported by supervisors and invigilators, were 3,408, compared with the 2,158 in 2012 and the 3,401 in 2011.
Forty-seven candidates were caught with mobile phones in examination halls, in 2013.
In the 2013 WASSCE, 4,879 subjects results were cancelled, 747 candidates had their entire results cancelled, and 27, their entire results cancelled and barred from any of the WAEC examinations, up to two years.
Again this year, 1,293 candidates were caught with foreign materials.
The WAEC is mystified how candidates still enter examination halls with foreign materials, under the strict watch of invigilators and supervisors.
As stated by WAEC, examination malpractices continue to be the greatest challenge to the credibility of academics in the country.
The WAEC conducts the WASSCE for high school candidates in Ghana, The Gambia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Liberia. The BECE is conducted for junior high schools in Ghana.