Fact-checking: GCE candidates did not protest against exams rescheduling.

Context

On June 6, 2026, government took the nation by storm and announced the suspension of the written phase of the General Certificate of Education (GCE) examinations. 

Government’s decision through the Ministry of Secondary Education, to pause the exams came after confidential examination questions leaked online. 

The suspension applied to the remaining Ordinary and Advanced Level subjects that were originally set to run from June 8 to June 18, after just a week into the written phase. 

Following a two-week delay for new test materials to be prepared, the exams successfully resumed nationwide on June 22, 2026.

Claims

Few days into the two-week exams pause, an image portraying supposed GCE candidates marching on the streets of Buea went viral on social media platforms like Tiktok, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram. 

The image claimed students in Cameroon protested the 2026 GCE exam leak by marching with banners demanding fair examinations. The demonstrators argued that they should not be held responsible for the leaked questions and demanded clarity following exam rescheduling. 

Banners read messages such as: "We are not responsible for the exams that leaked" and "Fair exams, fair results".

 Findings

Following the wide circulation, we did try to fact-check the authenticity of the protest but found out it was far from the truth. 

We placed calls to colleague journalists in the town of Buea where social media had claimed it happened but none could confirm the said protest was staged in the city. 

They did not recognise the street of the protest to be in Buea or even the uniform to pertain to any secondary education establishment in the city. 

A search on Fake Image Detector reveals a high chance of the imaged having been doctored. In fact, the analysis puts the possibility of Artificial Intelligence, AI, to have been used on the image at 67%. 

The image was placed on Image Whisperer, another AI detector tool, and the result further assert the usage of AI. 

The result revealed that the original photo was taken during a student street demonstration, but the English text concerning exam leaks has been superimposed using digital handwriting fonts. 

Forensic analysis via IML-ViT flags localized editing anomalies on the placards (72%), confirming that the messaging is a digital insertion rather than physically painted text. ( https://imagewhisperer.org/analysis/Td1GQ9O6)

Further examination using the tool photo magnifier on Fake news debunker InViD WeVerify showed some anomalies on the photo. 

A protester at the far right of the photo, seems to be walking away from the camera but his upper body is portrayed to be facing the camera. 

Another protester on the left side of the frontline protesters looks different from the rest of the students putting on white short-sleeve shirt over black shirts and trousers.

We can also affirm that the forged photo was first shared on Facebook by Yong Destiny Blog on June 8, 2026 before it went viral on other pages and social media platforms. 

Impact

After ascertaining that there was no protest stage in Buea by students or candidates writing this year’s GCE examinations, plus the use of AI to forge the viral image, we can only but regret the far-reaching impact of this disinformation. 

On Facebook for example, the false information was shared in the pages like The Elephant Mentors with over 428,000 followers, Yong Destiny Blog with over 17,000 followers as well as Facebook groups like Lions Indomptables Cameroun Football with more than 886,800 members and Cameroon Kongossa Bar with 384k members.

Contacted on Facebook, Yong Destiny Blog claimed he got the image from a group, without specifying the social media platform on which the group is found. 

He confessed that he did not verify the information before sharing and was solely interested in sharing the information.

This same image was used to produce viral contents on TikTok and Instagram with hundreds of thousands of views per content. All these go to show the extent to which this disinformation has reached. 

Further discussions

The fake content or photo not only sparked varied reactions but also raised conversation over several issues related to organisation of examinations, credibility of certificates or even responsibility and mechanism to prevent examination leakages in Cameroon. 

While some stakeholders questioned if the rescheduling of the exams was the right call, others say the government should have handled it differently.

Some parents and guardians, as reported by leading news portal, MMI News even claimed compensation from the GCE Board arguing that the rescheduling forced them to bear additional costs for transportation, feeding, and accommodation.

Invoking international law, including Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, some even argued that disrupting examinations without adequate remedy violates children's right to education.

Meanwhile, investigations to identify and prosecute those responsible for compromising the integrity of the examination session as announced by government are yet to produce effect.