By Elizabeth Larkwor Baah
Sakumono. July 9, GNA – Mr Isaac MacCarthy-Mensah, the Education Director for the Tema West municipality, has urged candidates writing the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) to follow instructions covering the examinations.
Mr. MacCarthy-Mensah, speaking to the Ghana News Agency after touring some centres in the municipality, said every exam had its own rules and regulations that must be followed to ensure candidates passed to the next level.
He said it was essential for them to follow the instructions provided by the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC), the examination body responsible for BECE, to use only the recommended writing instruments.
He said for instance, they must use only the pencils provided by the WAEC for shading their answers to the objective questions instead of using pens and other items.
He explained that the optical mark reader, the machine that marks the BECE objective sheets, has been designed to read special types of pencil marks, and failure to use the proscribed writing tool could lead to errors in the marking process and may result in incorrect scores.
“The objective paper is only for pencil work, so, it is a very big mistake to use a pen; the objective sheet is being marked by a machine, and the machine will only detect the pencil,” he stated.
The Education Director called on supervisors who may record the use of pen shading to write a report, attach the objective paper to it, and send it to WAEC for consideration, adding that he believed the pupils had been well prepared for the exams.
He mentioned that there had been a big improvement in the conduct of the candidates, the organisation of the exams, and its related issues, noting that he found the candidates well composed and cheerful even on the first day, which often turned out to be stressful.
A total of 3,974 candidates, comprising 2,080 girls and 1,894 boys from 21 public schools and 106 private schools, are sitting for the exams in 12 centres in the municipality.
Out of the total number of candidates, the public schools registered 2,316 candidates, made up of 1,222 females and 1,094, while those from private schools were 1,658, comprising 858 females and 800 males.
Twelve supervisors, 15 assistant supervisors, and 153 invigilators are supervising the exams in the Tema West municipality.
GNA