2017 BECE underway
This year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) began throughout the country on Monday, June 5, 2017 with most candidates eager to enjoy the free senior high school (SHS) programme scheduled to take off in September.
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The examination which began smoothly had candidates showing up in their numbers despite the isolated cases of absenteeism.
For instance, there was only one absentee at one of the six centres visited by the Minister of State in-charge of Tertiary Education, Prof. Kwesi Yankah. The centres are the Kanda Cluster of Schools, Accra High School, Achimota Preparatory School, Anumle Junior High School (JHS), Achimota Basic School and the Achimota School. The only absentee was recorded at the Anumle JHS.
Addressing the students, Prof. Yankah advised them to obey the examination rules so that they would not be sanctioned.
The National Examination Coordinator at the Basic Education Division of the Ghana Education Service, Mr Richard Ayitey, said there were some absentees at the centres he visited at Ashongman in Accra and in the Birim North District of the Eastern Region.
According to him, there were also cases of pregnant girls reporting at the centres to write the examination.
Although he could not give any figures, he said he was continuing his tour of the centres to Kumasi and other parts of the country.
“No major incident has been recorded so far, but we still have some cases of absenteeism,” he said. He also mentioned the case of a pregnant girl who could not finish the English Paper II because she was due to deliver and, therefore, had to be rushed to the hospital.
A total of 468,053 public and private final-year JHS students are writing the 2017 BECE. The candidates comprise 241,148 males and 226,905 females. This year’s total candidature represents an increase of 7,040 candidates over last year’s figure of 461,013.
A total of 311 JHS students with disabilities are writing the BECE. There are 285 deaf, 57 blind and 11 dumb candidates.
The examination is being written at 1,702 centres across the country. During the examination, there would be 1,702 supervisors, 1,548 assistant supervisors and 16,410 invigilators.
Today, candidates will write Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and French.
The candidates will write Mathematics and Ghanaian Language tomorrow and Social Studies on Friday, June 9.
The examination began smoothly last Monday with candidates writing English Language and Religious and Moral Education.
They wrote Integrated Science and Building Design and Technology yesterday.