School, private candidates to be examined differently — WAEC

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has announced that school candidates for Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and private candidates will, for the first time, be examined differently as a result of the introduction of the common core curriculum.

The council said school candidates would now be examined on the common core curriculum, while private candidates would be examined on the old syllabus. It has, therefore, advised private candidates to take note and be careful when selecting their subjects.

The Head of Public s at WAEC, John Kapi, who made this known at a press briefing in Accra, yesterday, added that the fee payable for the BECE was GH¢214.

Registration Process

He said the portal, opened for registration of candidates on Monday, March 11, would be closed on Friday, April 19, cautioning that the council might not accommodate late entries due to test security reasons.

He said the approved WAEC registration fee for entry in seven to nine subjects was GH¢465.00. “This figure is exclusive of the fees for practical or oral tests which range between GH¢14.50 and GH#19.50 per test,” he said.

Mr Kapi warned school authorities that the council would, among others, withhold the entire results of the non-school/unqualified candidate, pending the outcome of investigation by the appropriate committee of the council for the registration of non-school/unqualified candidate(s).

“The council wishes to caution parents and the general public against registering for the examination with ‘banner schools’, many of whom lack any of the requisite facilities to run as regular schools,” he added.

Mr Kapi stressed that school authorities must ensure that accurate details of candidates were provided.

WASSCE private candidates

On the General and Advanced Business Certificate Examinations, the head of Public Affairs said the examinations would be conducted from Friday, August 2 to Monday, September 2, 2024.

“The registration portal for this examination was opened on March 5, 2024 and will be closed on Friday, April 19, 2024. The examination is open to both private individuals and students in approved institutions,” he indicated.

For WASSCE private candidates, he said, the examination would be conducted from Friday, October 25, to Wednesday, December 18, 2024, adding that the registration portal would be opened from Tuesday, April 2, to Friday, August 30, 2024.

“Fees payable for this examination depends on the number of subjects a candidate registers to write,” he said. He urged heads of school and other relevant authorities to request for access arrangements for special needs candidates with accompanying medical reports forwarded to the council within the registration periods. 

Monies owed

The Director of Finance at WAEC, Cornelius Azumah, confirmed that WAEC had not been able to receive full fees from the government, making it difficult for it to pay some examiners, supervisors and invigilators.

He said in 2022, the council had to use some fees received for the 2023 examinations to pay supervisors and invigilators for 2022. “We have been following up on that and the government promised that it will release funds to us soon. So far we have taken some funds from them and we still have some arrears to receive from them.

He said the arrears for 2022 was GH¢9.9million and about GH¢40 million for 2023 for the main examination. The Head of Legal Department at WAEC, Reverend Victor Brew, giving an update on sanction on examination malpractices, said the council had been largely successful in prosecuting some cases and expressed the hope that fewer examination malpractices would be recorded this year.