438,030 Candidates write 2015 BECE
This year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) started yesterday with a total of 438,030 candidates taking part in the June 15 to19 examinations.
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The number of candidates represent an increase of 15,084 over last year’s figure of 422,946 final-year junior high school (JHS) students who registered for the examination.
About 13,434 basic schools, public and private, are taking part in the examination which is being written at 1,546 centres across the country.
The examination is being supervised by 1,546 supervisors and 1,466 assistant supervisors. A total of 15,326 invigilators will be swapped in the course of the examination to take charge of the candidates.
The number of candidates who will be writing the information and communications technology (ICT) paper is 414,251 while that for French is 180,535.
Regional breakdown
A breakdown of the total number of candidates made available to the Daily Graphic showed that the Ashanti Region was presenting the highest number of candidates of 87,815. They are made up of 45,197 males and 42,618 females.
The Greater Accra Region follows with 78,436, made up of 37,915 males and 40,521 females.
The Central Region is presenting the third highest number of 45,900 candidates (23,936 males and 21,964 females).
The next highest is the Western Region with 44,094 candidates that comprises 23,602 males and 20,492 females while the Eastern Region has 41,172, with 22,034 being males and 19,138 females.
The Brong Ahafo Region also has 41,026 candidates registering for the examination; 22,278 males and 18,751 females.
Thirty-six thousand, two hundred and sixty-seven (21,019 males and 15,711 females) candidates will sit for the examination in the Northern Region while 31,267 candidates—17,351 males and 13,916 females—are writing in the Volta Region.
The Upper East Region has registered 19,069 candidates (9,649 males and 9,420 females), while 12,521 candidates— 6,746 males and 5,775 females— are writing the examination in the Upper West Region.
The examination began yesterday with English Language and will end with ICT on June 19, 2015.
Situation report
Suweiba Yakubu reports from Tamale that during a tour of some examination centres, the Northern Regional Director of Education, Alhaji Mohammed Haroon, attributed the abysmal performance of JHS pupils in the BECE in the region over the past years to absenteeism and laziness on the part of teachers.
He said the region, for the past two years, had been at the bottom position in the BECE and added that if proper measures were not put in place to reverse the trend, it would lead to more school dropouts in the region.
The Deputy Northern regional Minister, Alhaji A.B.A Fuseini, for his part, said the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) had advised the students to read instructions carefully before they start writing their papers.
He said reading the instructions carefully would enable them to answer the questions well, since it directed them on how they were supposed to answer the questions.
From Bolgatanga, Alhandu Abdul-Hamid reports that BECE candidates in the Upper East Region have been cautioned to desist from taking mobile phones and other foreign materials into examination halls.
The Deputy Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Daniel Syme, said offenders risked being sent out of the examination halls and their papers cancelled if they were caught.
He asked the candidates to be confident and not to be scared by the policemen at the examination centres as they were there to protect them.
The Deputy Minister said these when he and the Upper East Regional Director of Education, Mr Emmanuel Zumakpe, toured some examination centres in the Bolgatanga Municipality.
Akwasi Ampratwum-Mensah writes from Takoradi that at about 10:30 a.m. when the Daily Graphic got to the Bethel Methodist JHS centre, Mr Jacob Bentil, the centre supervisor, indicated that everything was going on smoothly.
He, however, said even though the centre could not start the first paper, English Language, at exactly 9:00 a.m. due to the late arrival of logistics, that did not compromise the conduct of the examination.
At the Bompeh Senior High School centre "A", the supervisor, Mr I. A. Akwetey, expressed the hope that nothing untoward would happen till the end of the process.
At the Ghana Secondary Technical School (GSTS) centre, the atmosphere was equally serene and the candidates were fully concentrated while invigilators kept a close eye on the students.
From Kumasi, Emmanuel Baah reports that the Ashanti Region presented the highest number of candidates in this year’s BECE examination.
There was no incident on the first day of the examination during visits to the Kumasi Anglican Senior High School (KASS) and the Kumasi Technical Institute (KTI).
The General Supervisor in charge of the KASS Centre, Mr Paul Ayamba, told the Daily Graphic that there was one absentee.
At the KTI centre, the only challenge was the late arrival of examination papers.