2024 BECE results to be political amid general election – Examiner

An Examiner with the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) says this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) results will be politically influenced by the general election scheduled for December 7, 2024.

He said this is because the West African Examinations Council, an agency under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, which is a government body sometimes urged to be lenient in the marking of the national examination scripts.

“Normally, before we start the marking, we go for coordination, where officials from WAEC and various zonal leaders of the various subjects meet on how we are to go about the marking

But in the course of the coordination, especially the BECE, they will tell us that it is political, so in the course of the marking, we shouldn’t be so strict, meaning sometimes we should compromise with the system,” he said in a radio interview.

He added, “These things put fear in us, the examiners, and when we see some of these malpractices, all we can do is write a report and produce evidence. After that, we don’t have any control over what decision is to be taken based on what we have reported to our superiors.”

“They will tell us that the BECE, especially, is political. So when we are marking, we shouldn’t be strict. We should know that the students are our own children, our cousins, our nephews, and stuff like that. So we only listen to what they say, and we also go by that,” the examiner noted.

Ended on Monday, July 15, 2024 a total of 569,095 candidates representing 282,648 males and 286,447 females from 19,506 Junior High Schools across the country participated in the BECE for School, which started on Monday, July 8, 2024.

Regarding BECE for Private Candidates, about 1,366 candidates, comprising 735 males and 631 females, sat for the private examination administered at fifteen (15) centres, mainly in the regional capitals.

A total of 2,123 supervisors, 1,889 assistant supervisors, and 19,973 invigilators, according to the Examinations Council, were engaged to ensure the smooth conduct of the BECE for School held in 2,123 centres nationwide.

The Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) is both for certification and selection into Senior High Schools and Technical Institutes in Ghana. The results of the examination are based on Continuous Assessment and the external examination.

The Continuous Assessment forms 30% whilst the external examination forms 70% of the total assessment. Candidates in the third year of Junior High Schools (JHSs) approved by the Ghana Education Service (GES) are eligible to register to take part in this examination.

Candidates are graded based on their performance in the external examination (objective and written) and the Continuous (Internal) Assessment marks provided by the schools.

A nine-point numerical scale is used in grading the candidates, with Grade 1 denoting the highest performance and Grade 9 the lowest.

The results of the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) are released in August to enable successful and qualified candidates to enter Senior High Schools and Technical Institutes at the beginning of the academic year.

The results lists are sent to the participating schools, whilst each candidate receives a statement of results through his/her school. Candidates can also check their results online with an access card at www.waecgh.org.