May success crown efforts of BECE candidates

Yesterday, over 450,000 candidates from 14,267 public and private junior high schools (JHSs) in the country began writing their week-long Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), amid tight security.

The beefed-up security measures are to prevent the leakage of questions that had characterised the examination in recent times and assumed embarrassing and frightening proportions last year.

We hope the measures that have been put in place this year, including the airlifting of the question papers and the involvement of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) at every stage of the distribution process, will curtail any leaks.

The cancellation and rewriting of leaked examination papers, through no fault of the candidates, have been both traumatic and wastage of resource and our desire is that we will not experience any more leaks.

The leaks have also made the examining body, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), and the Ghana Education Service (GES) a laughing stock and also lowered our education and school certificates in the comity of nations.

The Daily Graphic believes that in the past the element of ‘apor’ (as leaked examination questions is referred to) had persisted due to several factors.

These include the practice of parents to acquire already marked leaked papers  for their children who did not take their studies seriously and also the lack of proper prosecution of greedy teachers and middlemen caught engaging in the spreading of leaked papers.

What has made matters worse is the popularity of social media, making the leaks circulate very wide in no time on WhatsApp and other platforms. 

This is a dent on our moral fabric as a country and we all have to condemn ‘apor’ for lowering our self-esteem as a country.

The Daily Graphic identifies with the stress that the candidates have to go through, especially as it is the rainy season, in order to write the examination that will take them to senior high schools (SHSs), including travelling long distances to examination centres, in some cases.

Also, the fact that it is an examination, with all the national attention and security, brings so much stress on the candidates.

But nobody makes any progress in life by cutting corners. At best, the cutting of corners nurtures crooks and makes people develop a penchant for corrupt practices from childhood to adulthood, making society the poorer.

We urge the candidates to take their studies seriously, for that is the only way they can make meaningful progress in life.

They must burn the midnight oil in their preparations for the examination.

We also urge the GES to ensure proper supervision of all basic schools in the country, so that teachers effectively impart knowledge to pupils and students during normal school hours to make sure they are not found wanting during examinations.

Above all, we urge WAEC to impose appropriate sanctions on any official caught indulging in the leaking of examination papers, as that practice brings the whole work of the council into disrepute. 

The Daily Graphic wishes all BECE candidates well and a stress-free transition to SHS. May success crown the efforts of those who have worked for the best results.