The West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) withheld a total of 879 results from the just released 2024 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) results.

According to the Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education Conrad Sackey who announced the results on Monday 18th November 2024, disclosed that the 879 results withheld by WAEC were for late entries.

Earlier in July, a total of 126,703 pupils 61,380 males and 65,116 females, from 1,833 schools sat for the 2024 BECE in Sierra Leone.

The Top performing candidates are Mariama Sesay from the International School Limited and John Sitta from the Alfred International Junior Secondary School with both candidates tied at an aggregate of seven each.

5,578 candidates were absent for all subjects or had their entire results canceled. 5,545 of these candidates were absent for all subjects.

This makes the result of 125,824 entries inclusive of those absent for all subjects that were released to the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education on the 14th of November 2024.

The number of candidates in 2024 having their results released (121,125) are fewer than the 127,065 of 2023 as well as the 127,889 of 2022 and the 131,483 of 2021. It is important to note that few candidates have been sitting BECE since 2020, largely due to the fewer candidates failing and having to repeat the exam. For the fourth year in a row, there are more females amounting to 61,957 than males at 58,289 students sitting BECE. The results released to MBSSE this year, 6.3% more females than males sat the 2024 BECE.

The pass rate for individual papers stands at 90.5%. The number of candidates obtaining a minimum of five passes, inclusive of language, arts or maths.