The Council has organised its Annual Distinction Awards Ceremony which seeks to recognize and award candidates who excel in the Council’s examination at the Senior High School level.

At the ceremony, seven (7) awards were presented to outstanding candidates who distinguished themselves at the WASSCE for School Candidates, 2023.

Out of the 448,674 candidates who entered for the examination, Leonard Kofi M. Amo-Kodieh, a former student of St James Seminary Senior High School (SHS) in Sunyani, emerged as the Overall Best Candidate at the WASSCE (SC) 2023 with a t-score of 623.5512. Selorm Dzandu, a former student of Labone Senior High School, was adjudged the Second Overall Best Candidate with a t-score of 623.1882. The third Overall Best position went to Daniel Asenso-Gyambibi, a former student of St James Seminary Senior High School, Sunyani with a t-score of 622.4438.

Aside from the Overall Best Awards, the Council also presented awards to candidates who came out on top in the various programmes in the Council’s examination.

Leonard Kofi M. Amo-Kodieh was adjudged the Best Candidate in the General Science Programme, while Laudina Adutwumwaa of St. Monica’s Senior High School took the award for the Best Candidate in the General Arts Programme.

Kwasi Asare Adjei-Fordjour of St. Augustine College, Cape Coast and Akosua Adjei Boateng of Juaso Senior High Technical School were adjudged the Best Candidate in Business and Technical Programmes respectively.

Speaking at the ceremony, the Head of National Office of WAEC, Mrs. Wendy Enyonam Addy-Lamptey, congratulated all award winners for their sterling performance. She used the opportunity to highlight the alarming the number of examination malpractice cases recorded each year and called for a collective effort of stakeholders to curb the canker before it destroys the moral fibre of the nation. She further cautioned candidates who would be taking part in any of the Council’s examinations to endeavour to write their names and Index numbers on their answer scripts, as the Council would not be in a position to process results for such candidates.

The Deputy Minister of Education, Rev. Ntim Fordjour and the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, Dr Eric Nkansah, commended WAEC for upholding its integrity in conducting credible examinations and wished all awardees success in their future endeavours.

The awards Ceremony is an initiative of the WAEC Endowment Fund.

Three remarkable young minds have made Ghana proud by sweeping all three top awards at the International Excellence Awards for WASSCE for School Candidates, 2023. Out of a total of 2,327,342 candidates from the five member countries of the Council, Master Leonard Kofi M. Amo-Kodieh formerly of St. James Seminary Senior High School was adjudged the 1st Overall Best Candidate, Master Selorm Dzandu of Labone Senior High School was adjudged the 2nd Overall best Candidate while Master Daniel Asenso-Gyambibi formerly of St. James Seminary Senior High School was adjudged the 3rd Overall Best Candidate.

Master Leonard Kofi M. Amo-Kodieh and Master Dzandu Selorm are both studying Medicine at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology while Daniel Asenso-Gyambibi is studying Computer Engineering at Ashesi University.

The three overall best candidates were honoured for their academic excellence at the Opening Ceremony of the 72nd Annual Council Meeting in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Delivering his valedictory speech, Master Leonard Kofi M. Amo-Kodieh appealed to students from the five West African countries to take their education seriously as he believes that is the key driving force in changing the world.

The Head of National Office, Mrs. Wendy Addy-Lamptey, Chief Government Nominee to Council, Dr. Eric Nkansah, Council Members from Ghana and the Headmaster of St. James Seminary SHS, Father Owusu Sekyere attended the ceremony.

The International Excellence Awards was instituted in 1985 to honour candidates with outstanding performance in the Council’s Senior High School Certificate examinations. Originally, the awards were based on the results of the School Candidates’ (May/June) SC/GCE ‘O’ Level (International) examination. With the phasing out of the SC/GCE examinations and their replacement in 1998 by WASSCE, the Awards are now based on the results of the School Candidates’ version of WASSCE.

This year’s Council Meeting which started from Monday, 18th will end on Friday, 22nd March, 2024.

The Excellence and Distinction Awards were instituted by the WAEC Endowment Fund. One of the objects of the Fund is the provision of prizes for awards to candidates who distinguish themselves in the Council’s national and international examinations. The Ceremony has been specially designed to publicly acknowledge the exceptional performance of candidates in the WASSCE for School Candidates.

Speaking at the ceremony, the Head of National Office, Mrs. Wendy E. Addy-Lamptey noted that the awards over the years have always confirmed the high reliability of the Council’s examinations as all the award winners have been found to have track records of excellent performance in their schools.

She further indicated that the activities of rogue website operators and social media scammers whose primary aim is to make money at the expense of the credibility of WAEC examinations continue to pose as one of the Council’s major challenges. She added that the Council was working closely with the Police, National Investigative Bureau (NIB), National Security and other security agencies to address the situation.  She called on the awardees to be worthy ambassadors in the fight against the canker of examination malpractice.

The HNO thereafter assured all stakeholders that the Council will continue to put in place measures to ensure that the credibility of its examinations is not undermined.

Addressing awardees and participants at the ceremony, the Hon. Deputy Minister for Education, Dr. Gifty Twum Ampofo congratulated the awardees for their outstanding performance and assured stakeholders of the Government’s commitment to putting in place a number of interventions to ensure that students are well-rounded, innovative and positive agents of change. She further assured the Council of the Ministry’s support to exploring diverse ways of curbing examination malpractice in order to ensure that educational standards are maintained, thereby promoting sustainable human resource development in the country.

The Council, has held the Distinction Awards Ceremony for the WASSCE for School Candidates, 2022. The Distinction Awards Ceremony is an initiative by the WAEC Endowment Fund to recognize outstanding candidates who distinguish themselves in the Council’s examinations at the Senior High School level.

Alex Opoku Manu, a former student of St James Seminary Senior High School (SHS) in Sunyani, emerged the Overall Best Candidate at the WASSCE (SC) 2022 out of 422,883 candidates. The Second Overall Best position went to Benjamin Eyram Nana Kwame Degbey, also a former student of St James Seminary SHS. Abena Afriyie Poku, a former student of Holy Child SHS in Cape Coast in the Central Region, was the Third Overall Best Candidate.

The Best Candidate in the General Science Programme went to Alex Opoku Manu, while Mubarak Illiasu Danaa of T.I. Ahmadiyya SHS, Kumasi, took the award for the Best Candidate in the General Arts Programme.

Ato Kwamena Quansah of the Presbyterian Boys’ SHS, Legon and Ewura Esi Adobea Otieku-Boadu of Wesley Girls High School, Cape Coast, won Best Candidate in the Business and Home Economics programmes respectively.

Speaking at the ceremony, the Head of National Office of WAEC, Mrs. Wendy Enyonam Addy-Lamptey, noted that 124 candidates out of the total number that sat for the examination obtained 8 Grade A1’s which was the criterion for the awards. She used the opportunity to inform stakeholders and candidates about the revision of the rules and regulations governing the conduct of the Council’s examinations.

The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum and the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, Dr Eric Nkansah, commended WAEC for instituting the awards to celebrate excellence and called for an end to examination malpractice.