‘Private BECE candidates would be assessed only on performance’
Candidates writing the private Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) would be assessed only by their performance in the examination, the Minister of Education, Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, has said.
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“We will not use the continuous assessment for these specialised students. That is why it is a specialised scheme and that is why when you are in JHS Two, you will not be allowed to write this exam,” she said.
Professor Opoku-Agyemang disclosed this to journalists on the premises of the Asare Minako Hall of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) after wishing the private candidates writing the examination good luck.
Continuous Assessment
WAEC always marks the BECE over 70 per cent, while the remaining 30 per cent is from the continuous assessment of the candidate.
She said special dispensation would have to be made for those private candidates, even though she admitted that education was not only just about teaching people to pass their examinations.
Licence to be lazy
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang dispelled perceptions that the private BECE would be a licence for students to be lazy, knowing that they would have a second chance to re-sit the examination.
“It will be a big disappointment for people to reason that way. There is a second chance for WASSCE,” she queried.
She said BECE candidates deserved a second chance just as their friends at the higher level of learning, saying, “these deserve even more attention because they are younger. It is the first time they are writing an exam of this stature.”
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Variables
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said in writing an examination, many variables could affect the performance of the candidate and that was why there was the need to give candidates a second chance.
She recalled the psychological trauma the candidates used to go through to re-sit the examination under the former arrangement, and said that resulted in the low patronage of the examination.
The minister said the current arrangement for re-sit afforded the candidates the opportunity to sit for only the subjects they did not perform well in instead of them having to re-sit all the nine subjects.
Writer’s Email: severious.dery@graphic.com.gh