GES cautions heads against unauthorised BECE registration fees

The Ghana Education Service (GES) has cautioned heads of basic schools against imposing unauthorised registration fees for this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) for school candidates. 

That, it said, was because it had taken notice of allegations on social media that some heads of basic schools were imposing unauthorised BECE registration fees on final-year students.

“Management wishes to emphasise that these fees are unauthorised, and all heads are advised to cease this practice immediately. Regional directors are instructed to alert district directors to monitor the situation and caution all heads of basic schools.”

“Any head who has collected such unauthorised fees is required to refund the monies promptly. Failure to comply will result in sanctions,” a statement signed by the Head of the Public Relations Unit of the GES, Cassandra Twum Ampofo, said.

It said heads of basic schools were reminded that late registration of candidates would not be permitted and, therefore, all eligible candidates must be registered within the stipulated registration period set by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC).

WAEC

Meanwhile, WAEC said its attention had been drawn to publications in some sections of the media that the council had released details of approved fees to be paid for the 2025 BECE-SC.

“The said publication quotes an amount of GH₵550.00 as the approved fee to be paid by candidates who would be sitting for the BECE-SC 2025.

The statement goes further to state that parents of prospective candidates should get ready to pay the amount quoted to the Council,” WAEC responded in a statement. 

However, the council said the “actual amount payable per candidate for the BECE in 2025 is GH₵282.35”.

It said that the publication was not only misleading but also mischievous and that fees for the various examinations conducted by the council were not fixed arbitrarily. 

There are relevant committees of the council that meet to deliberate on a number of parameters to be considered in order to arrive at the amount payable per candidate.”

“The approved fee payable per candidate for the BECE-SC, 2025 is GH₵282.35. This amount is about 32 per cent higher than the previous year’s figure of GH₵ 214.01,” it said.

The statement said the government had previously absorbed fees of all candidates in public schools and there had not been any formal communication indicating anything different.

Candidates in private schools, it said, would however have to pay their own examination fees.

2025

This year’s BECE-SC has been slated for June 9 to 16, 2025.

A circular dated January 24, 2025, and signed by the Director, Schools and Instructions Division of the GES, Prince Charles Agyemang-Duah, announced the dates for the 2025 BECE-SC and the WASSCE-SC, indicating that WAEC would communicate the period for the registration of candidates for the respective examinations to the heads of schools in due course.

“By this letter, regional directors of education are requested to communicate this information to metropolitan, municipal and district directors of education to inform all heads of basic and SHSs to take note and prepare the candidates for the examination accordingly,” it said.

The BECE schedule marks a significant return to the pre-COVID era after a four-year hiatus.

Prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 and the subsequent closure of schools, the BECE-SC was written in June, while results were released in August.

The BECE-SC was subsequently written from September 14 to 18, 2020, following the reopening of schools for 531,705 final-year students.