By Joyce Danso
Accra, Oct. 13, GNA- The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has asked this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates to be focused and cautious of activities of “examination social media racketeers.”
A statement issued and signed by Mrs Agnes Teye-Cudjoe, Head, Public Affairs, National office WAEC in Accra, cautioned the candidates against engaging in collusion and other forms of examination malpractices, such as bringing mobile phones and other foreign materials into halls.
WAEC’s advice comes on the back of the commencement of this year’s BECE on Monday, October 17 to October 21, 2022.
The statement said a total number of 552,276 candidates from 18,501 schools would take the examination.
WAEC assured the public that all appropriate measures had been put in place to safeguard test security and the successful conduct of the examination.
It said the printing of questions had been done in compliance with the Council’s Security Regulations and it was going to ensure fortification of storage at depots.
According to the Council, it had additional depots for the storage of confidential materials close to some selected centres to prevent the late start of papers.
The Council said there was also the provision of a 24-hour guard for all storage depots by the Ghana Police Service and also assured of the presence of a security officer at each examination centre.
Additionally, the Council said it had deployed additional personnel for the monitoring and inspection of centres during the examination.
The Council also urged all examination officials (Supervisors, Invigilators, Distributors etc) to comply with the rules and regulations governing the conduct of the examination and refrain from being facilitators of malpractice.
WAEC said this year’s examination would be conducted for both school and private candidates at 2,023 centres throughout the country.
The statement said, “the entry figure is made up of 276,988 males and 275,288 females. The number of candidates that registered for this year’s BECE is 3.48 per cent less than the 2021 entry figure of 572,167.
“In respect of the BECE for Private Candidates (PC), 1,132 candidates made up of 634 males and 498 females entered for the examination.”
According to the statement, the examination would be taken at 15 selected centres in the regional capitals.
It said the number of registered candidates for this year’s BECE was 6.09 per cent higher than the 2021 figure of 1067.
GNA