Good luck to our BECE candidates
A total of 602,457 final-year junior high school (JHS) students are converging on 2,137 centres across the country from today for this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
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Out of the number, 1,743 are writing as private candidates at 15 centres under 15 supervisors, 15 assistant supervisors and 60 invigilators.
A total of 2,137 supervisors, 2,000 assistant supervisors and 21,025 invigilators have been deployed at all the centres to ensure that the examination goes on without any hitch.
The BECE is often a crucial one for the candidates because it is a bridge between them and their academic growth, and for the second consecutive time the examination is being written by both school and private candidates.
As usual, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and other institutions such as the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Challenging Heights, an NGO, and other stakeholders have sent their best wishes to the candidates.
The Daily Graphic joins those institutions to also wish the candidates the very best of luck as they begin the examination this morning.
The Head of National Office (HNO) of WAEC, Wendy Enyonam Addy-Lamptey, in a goodwill message, assured the candidates that with adequate preparation, adherence to instructions and the observance of examination rules, they could pass the BECE without cheating.
She wished candidates well in the examination and cautioned them against engaging in cheating which could lead to their papers being withheld for investigations and also urged parents and school authorities to advise their wards and students against taking mobile phones to the examination halls.
The Daily Graphic reminds the candidates to be focused and be on the alert for the activities of “examination social media racketeers” whose primary aim has always been to make money through deception.
We consider it serious when school candidates engage in impersonation and carrying of mobile phones into the examination halls and, therefore, wish to join the WAEC to remind candidates of the serious consequences of carrying mobile phones, in particular, and other foreign materials into the examination hall.
The consequence of carrying mobile phones into the examination hall is dire, as it could lead to outright cancellation of the candidate’s entire examination.
The role of parents in all this is crucial because, ordinarily, a Junior High School (JHS), candidate cannot with his or her own resources buy a mobile phone.
Some of the phones seized last year in the examination halls were sophisticated and clearly beyond the reach of these students.
It, therefore, goes without saying that such phones were given to the candidates by their parents or an adult, a development the Daily Graphic finds unacceptable and calls on all well-meaning Ghanaians to frown on.
Let us help the students to know that society does not support cheating.
It is important parents do not give their wards the wrong impression that they can do anything and when they are in trouble, their parents can run to their aid.
The Daily Graphic sees this as a dangerous development that must not be allowed to fester because we will then be breeding half-baked professionals.
The WAEC has assured the candidates that they can pass the examination without cheating, with the advice that they make sure they prepare well for the papers and read the questions very well before answering them.
We believe that is the area both parents and teachers should be hammering instead of looking for material for their wards to gain unfair opportunity over their mates.
The candidates should know that the days some teachers and unpatriotic individuals such as the rogue website operators could answer questions, especially the objectives, and dictate to candidates are long gone with the introduction of serialisation.
Let us help the candidates to do independent work.
Let the children know that there is reward in hard work and that cheating can bring untold embarrassment on them and even jeopardise their future progress in education and life in general.
The stakes for the BECE are high and we as a society owe it a duty to help WAEC to organise an incident-free BECE.
We wish the candidates the best of luck as they begin the examination today.
