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BECE takes off smoothly

Reports from the various parts of the country indicate that this year’s Basic Education Certificates Examination (BECE), took off smoothly on Monday at the various centres, with the Minister of Education, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, expressing her satisfaction with the conduct of the examination.

During her visit to some centres in the Tema metropolis and the Ashaiman Municipality at the commencement of the examination, she advised the candidates not to entertain fear but rather comport themselves in order to sail through, writes Benjamin Xornam Glover, TEMA.

She urged the candidates, invigilators, supervisors and all other stakeholders to abide by the rules and guidelines governing the examination and desist from any form of examination malpractices.

Prof. Opoku-Agyemang was accompanied on her tour by the Chief Director at the Ministry of Education, Mr Enoch Cobbina; the Acting Director General of the Ghana Education Service, Mr Charles Ahettor Tsegah, and the Director of the Public Relations at the ministry, Mr Paul Krampah.

Also on the tour was the Metropolitan Chief Executive for Tema, Mr Isaac Ashia Odamtten; the Municipal Chief Executive for Ashaiman, Mr Ibrahim Baidoo, and the Tema Metropolitan Director of Education, Mr Kwesi Hutchful.

A total of about 423,000 Junior High School (JHS) candidates are taking part in this year's BECE in over 12,500 designated centres across the country.

Centres visited
The minister visited the Tema Senior High School, Tema Manhean SHS, St Peters Catholic Church Cluster of Schools at Tema New Town the Ashaiman Senior High School, among other areas.


Satisfaction
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang expressed satisfactions at the measures put in place by the various stakeholders including West African Examinations Council (WAEC), the teachers, school, invigilators, supervisors and co-ordinators, saying those efforts had contributed to the smooth conduct of the examinations.

She was also impressed that adequate provision had been made to provide students with low visibility with a different colour of examination sheet (and that had been provided) while other candidates with special needs have also been taken care of.

She was however worried about a news report that two candidates were involved in an accident on the eve of the examination in the Northern

Region while on their way to verify their examination centre.
“I am not sure if children are supposed to verify where they will sit for the examination the day before the exams. This is not a requirement. We will investigate but I think parents must play their role to ensure the safety of their wards,” she said.

Supervisor

The Examination Supervisor at the Tema Manhean SHS Centre, Mr Emmanuel Lawoepkor, said four candidates were absent out of the 292 candidates writing the BECE there, while at the St Peters Catholic Church centre, 257 candidates from six schools were writing the examinations, out of which one candidate was absent.

Mr Odamttem, who observed during the tour that some classrooms were dark, advised that some additional doors be opened, to adequately illuminate the rooms.

From Cape Coast, Zadok Kwame Gyesi reports that the Cape Coast Municipal Chief Executive, Ms Priscilla Arhin, has advised pupils writing the BECE in the metropolis to strive to make good grades to enable them to gain admissions to the best schools in the region.

She said Cape Coast was not endowed with many natural resources like other regions with the exception of its schools.

“All we have is our educational resource and therefore you must take advantage of it,” she advised.
Ms Arhin said this when she visited some examination centres in the metropolis.

She visited seven centres including Adisadel College, Mfantsipim School, Holy Child Senior High School, University Practice Senior High School, Efutu Senior High School, Wesley Girls Senior High School and St Augustine’s College.

Plight of visually impaired candidate

Our reporter, Mary Anane, writes from HO that a 16-year old candidate of the A.M.E Zion School at Ho Dome, who is visually-impaired, had difficulties reading and answering the questions.

The font size of the text was too small for Emmanuel Akpabli, who only continued to strain his eyes while reading and answering the English questions which he had been timed as other normal students.

This came to light at Ola Senior High School centre B when the Ho Municipal Chief Executive, Mrs Fafa Adinyira, and officials from the district education office toured some examination centres within the Ho Municipality.

The supervisor at the centre had provided a magnifying glass to help him read the test but that could not help even though Emmanuel said he managed to finish.

Medical report

The Headmaster, Mr Edward Kuebotornye, explained that he sent medical report to the West African Examination Council (WAEC) concerning the boy’s condition and was assured that his problem would be taken care of. However that was not done.

According to him, he had even requested to check the font size of the boy’s paper before the examination started but the supervisor refused because he claimed no such instructions had been given to him.

Mr Kuebotornye, however, said he would contact WAEC to increase the font size of subsequent papers for the boy to write the examination without much difficulty.

The Deputy Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr John Alexander Ackon, has lauded the tremendous increase in female participation in this year's BECE exams in the region, saying 'the girl child educational' slogan is paying off, writes Daniel Kenu, Kumasi.
Of the 21,935 candidates writing the examination in the Kumasi metropolis, 11,404 are females, who constitute more than 50 per cent of the total number and the deputy minister says that is very encouraging.

Mr Ackon, together with the Regional Director of Education, Kofi Sarfo Katanka, visited four of the 85 centres in the region, as well as a selected number of centres in the districts.

In all, 83,89 are writing the exams in  327 centres in the region of which 43,326 are males.

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