Candidates write second edition of private BECE

The second edition of the private Basic Education Certificate Examination began in 11 centres throughout the country yesterday, with a total of 1,413 candidates taking part in the examination.

The figure represents an increase of 232 over last year’s number of 1,181 candidates who sat for the maiden edition of the examination.

The examination, which is meant for resitters and first-timers, will end on Friday, February 19, 2016 with Information and Communications Technology.

Candidates began the examination with English Language and Religious and Moral Education. They will write Integrated Science and Basic Design and Technology today. Tomorrow, they will write Mathematics and Ghanaian Language and then write Social Studies and French on Thursday.

A visit by the Daily Graphic to the Asare Menaku Hall in Accra showed first-time and resit candidates busily taking part in the examination.

Alternative moves

Present at the centre were senior officials from the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) including the Head of National Office, Rev. Sam Nii Nmai Ollennu, who indicated that the council was happy to provide an alternative for those who could not pass the BECE during their previous sitting, as well as those writing the examination for the first time and were desirous of getting BECE certificates.

“Happily the number has gone up slightly,” he said and added that the take-off of the second edition of the examination had been smooth. 

The Supervisor at the Asare Menaku Hall, Mr Timothy Quaye, said there were 25 absentees at the Accra centre out of the expected candidates of 208.

Statistics from WAEC made available to the Daily Graphic indicated that 761 males and 601 females were writing the examination.

The figures showed that the Upper West Region, which normally presents the lowest number of candidates during the school BECE, has the highest number of candidates of 286.

The Northern Region is presenting the second highest number of candidates of 224 followed by the Greater Accra Region with 216 candidates and the Ashanti Region, which usually presents the highest number of candidates every year with 155 candidates.

The others are Central Region 127; Upper East, 126; Volta Region, 149; Eastern and Western regions, 54 each and the Brong Ahafo Region, 22 candidates.

Subject breakdown

For the subject breakdown, the core subjects of English, Mathematics, Integrated Science and Social Studies have the highest number of candidates. English Language has 1,321 candidates; Mathematics, 1,262; Integrated Science, 1,277; and Social Studies, 1,259.

The private BECE is for candidates who are rewriting the examination because of poor performance in the school BECE, as well as those who are desirous of pursuing further education and are, therefore, writing the examination for the first time.

Continuous assessment marks are not applicable in this examination, as candidates are marked over 100 per cent.

Under the private BECE policy, candidates can write any number of subjects between one and nine, including English, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and French.

Resit policy

The resit policy states, among other requirements that candidates rewriting the examination must provide the index numbers and the year of writing the school BECE.

However, in the case of first-time candidates, they (candidates) must be 16 years and above and under this category “students in junior high schools are not qualified to register for the examination”.

The date of birth of candidates will be printed on their certificates and, therefore, unqualified candidates caught writing the examination will have their results nullified.