Safeguard 2020 BECE question papers — GNAT
The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has called on the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) to tighten security in order to prevent the leaking of the question papers for this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) for school candidates.
That, it said, was to ensure the sanctity of the examination, as well as prevent the candidates from going through the pain of re-writing papers that would be cancelled as a result of the papers being leaked.
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The Public Relations Officer of GNAT, Mr Peter Korda, in an interview with the Daily Graphic, stressed the need for WAEC to put all the necessary measures in place to secure the examination to ensure its credibility.
He also urged the government to make all personal protective equipment (PPE) available in the schools before the commencement of the examination to provide the assurance and the protection needed against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Safety
Mr Korda also urged all candidates, supervisors and invigilators not to take things for granted but strictly observe all the COVID-19 protocols in their schools to ensure their own safety.
“The active cases may have gone down, but the virus has not been completely eradicated. It is, therefore, important that all become mindful of this and strictly observe all the prescribed protocols for our own safety and that of others,” he emphasised.
Statistics
A total of 531,705 candidates are writing the 2020 BECE for school candidates. Of the number, 269,419 are males and 262,286 females.
The Ashanti Region is presenting the highest number of candidates — 106,857, made up of 54,025 males and 52,832 females.
Invigilators
For this examination, WAEC has deployed 18,716 invigilators to monitor the 17,440 public and private schools that are taking part.
The 2,007 examination centres are also being manned by 2,007 supervisors and 1,719 assistant supervisors.
This BECE should have been written from June 15 to 19, 2020 but had to be rescheduled due to the closure of schools on March 15 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Breakdown
The Greater Accra Region follows with 94,443 candidates; 45,172 males and 49,271 females.
The Central Region is presenting the third highest number of candidates — 58,105 (29,467 males and 28,638 females), while the Western and the Western North regions come fourth with 54,432 candidates: 28,059 males and 26,373 females.
A total of 49,993 candidates, made up of 25,749 males and 24,244 females, are writing the examination in the Eastern Region.
The others are the Bono, Ahafo and Bono East regions, where 49,725 candidates (25,800 males and 23,923 females) would be sitting for the examination.
In the Volta and the Oti regions, 38,192 candidates (20,015 males and 18,177 females) are writing the examination, while 43,500 candidates (23,375 males and 20,125 females) are doing so in the Northern, North East and Savanna regions.
Some 22,532 candidates, comprising 10,757 males and 11,775 females, will write the examination in the Upper East Region, while 13,926 (7,000 males and 6,926 females) will write it in the Upper West Region.