President John Mahama has commended the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) for ensuring leakage-free exams during this year’s Basic Education Certificate Exams (BECE) which ended on June 17.

The president expressed delight about the concrete measures put in place to stop the perennial leakage of exams hours before they are due to be taken.

“I am pleased to note that WAEC has risen to the occasion to deal with the shameful examination malpractices that have plagued examinations over the past several years. This year, I am proud to note that our BECE examinations have passed without incident recorded,” he said while speaking at the 70th anniversary of the Aburi Girls Senior High School.

The BECE is the mandatory exams taken by junior high school pupils before they gain admission to senior high schools (SHS) in the country. Over the past few years, the questions of some of the papers have been leaked online leading to cancellations, a rewrite and subsequently the arrests of some people.

Related: WAEC cancels leaked BECE papers

Last year, some papers including Religious and Moral exams were cancelled. The equivalent exams SHS students write to gain admission to tertiary institutions (WASSCE) have also experienced leakages.

Related: WAEC publishes names of suspects behind leakage of examination papers

Some people alleged to have been involved in the leakage of exams have been named and arrested.