2021 WASSCE: WAEC says COVID-19 safety protocol will be observed
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) says all the necessary COVID-19 safety arrangements will be put in place to ensure the safety of more than 400,000 final-year senior high school (SHS) students that will be writing this year’s West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for school candidates.
That, it said, would be done in collaboration with the various school authorities to ensure the safety of candidates, supervisors and security personnel.
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The Head of Public Officers of WAEC, Mrs. Agnes Teye-Cudjoe, who made this known in an interview with the Daily Graphic yesterday, noted that the council was mindful of the safety of all and that it would, for instance, be providing alcohol- based sanitiser to the schools.
Schools, she said, in their arrangements, were also expected to space out the students adequately as part of the measures to ensure social distancing.
“For our officers who will be going round to the depots and on inspections, they have been tasked to observe all the safety etiquette. They will be provided with hand sanitiser, among other things,” she said.
Moreover, she said, the searching of candidates would be done in an orderly manner, bearing in mind social distancing, before they entered the examination halls and that filing out of the halls would be orderly.
“We are all mindful of the situation we are facing and, therefore, we are taking the necessary measures to ensure the safety of all,” Mrs Teye-Cudjoe emphasised.
A total of 446,321 final-year SHS students are writing the 2021 WASSCE for school candidates across the country.
They are made up of 221,437 males and 224,884 females from 965 public and private second cycle institutions.
The 2021 WASSCE statistics made available to the Daily Graphic indicate that the public schools are 651 while the private ones are 314.
Commencement
The examination, began with the project work last Monday, and the written papers will start on September 1, 2021.
A total of 763 supervisors will be at the 763 centres to man the examination.
Breakdown
According to the breakdown, the Ashanti Region will be presenting the highest number of candidates of 108,485, made up of 54,422 males and 54,063 females.
It is followed by the Eastern Region with 65,623 candidates, made up of 31,149 males and 34,474 females.
The others are the Bono, Ahafo and Bono East regions with a total of 58,033 candidates -28,370 males and 29,663 females.
The Central Region has 50,321 candidates (24,551 males and 25,770 females) while the Greater Accra Region presents 47,594 candidates (22,655 males and 24,939 females).
Others
The Volta and Oti regions have 31,749 candidates (16,387 males and 15,362 females) while the Western and Western North regions have 30,481 candidates (14,694 males and 15,787 females). The Northern, North East and Savannah regions have 29,152 candidates (16,362 males and 12,790 females).
The rest are the Upper East Region with 15,545 candidates (7,910 males and 7,635 females) and Upper West Region having 9,338 candidates (4,937 males and 4,401 females).
GES
Meanwhile, the Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Prof. Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, said all the necessary materials had been dispatched to the schools ahead of the examination.
He said the same preparations that were put in place that enabled Ghanaian candidates to excel in the WASSCE last year were the same preparations that had been put in place this year.
“I want to say that all the materials that they need for the writing of their examination have been dispatched to the schools,” he said.
