The West African Examinations Council has withheld the results of 6,812 candidates who sat for this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) pending the conclusion of investigations into alleged examination malpractice.

A statement signed by the Deputy Director, Public Affairs of the Council, Agnes Teye Cudjoe, said the withheld results will be released as soon as the council concludes its investigations.

Students were made to re-write five of the papers that were cancelled following widespread leakage. The cancelled papers included English Language 2, Religious and Moral Education 2, Science 2, Mathematics 2 and Social Studies 2.

The council has also stated it has released provisional results of candidates who took the June, 2015 BECE.

The results, according to the council, are being dispatched to schools through the Municipal and District Directors of Education.

A statement said the results have been posted online and candidates who so desire may access their results online at the Council's website.

437,942 candidates made up of 229,651 males and 208,291 females registered for the examination. This figure is 3.55% higher than that of the previous year.

The candidates were from 13,436 schools and the examination was administered at 1,546 centres. Out of those who initially registered for the examination 1,886 were absent.

The stanine grading system was used for the BECE with Grade 1 as the highest and Grade 9 being the lowest.