The West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) has refuted rumours that it has released the 2017 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).

It said its systems had been hacked and fake results had been posted to their servers and that the cyber security team was currently working on the problem.

A statement signed by Mrs Agnes Teye-Cudjoe, the Head of Public Affairs of WAEC, and copied to the Ghana News Agency, said for this reason, the results would be delayed up to September 30 or later.

It said the Council wanted to inform members of the public, especially candidates, to beware of imposters who promised to change examination results for a fee.

“Candidates are to note that all WAEC results will be well secured and can be authenticated and that persons with forged results will be exposed,” the statement said.

It said 289,210 candidates entered for the examination, which was 5.45 per cent higher than the 2016 candidature of 274,262.

The 2017 entry figure was made up of 147,591 (51 per cent) males and 141,619 (49 per cent) females and examination was conducted for 916 participating schools, the statement said.

A total of 1,732 (0.60 per cent) of the candidates who registered were absent from the examination.