Has WAEC ‘Basic Education Certificate Examination’ lost relevance?

The Executive Director of the Institute for Education Studies (IFEST), Dr Peter Anti Partey, following the conduct of the ongoing Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), has questioned the relevance of the national examination.

In a post sighted by Pretertiary.com, he said the recent introduction of the Free Senior High School has eliminated the cut-off points for BECE, saying the rollout of the National Standardised Test (NST) has also blurred the BECE’s placement function.

“Under the original National Pre-Tertiary Assessment Framework, the National Standardised Test (NST) was intended to generate longitudinal performance data for each learner at Basic 2, 4, 6, and 8.

Such data would have created robust profiles to guide students’ educational trajectories. In practice, however, the National Standardised Test (NST) has not fulfilled this vision

Given these developments and the broader goal of ensuring an unobstructed path from basic to secondary education, it is timely to reconsider the Basic Education Certificate Examination’s purpose within Ghana’s pre-tertiary system,” he said.

The IFEST Executive Director added, “As the National Education Forum has presented its work, it will be interesting to know their recommendations on the Basic Education Certificate Examination’s (BECE) future

It is important for stakeholders to continue to weigh whether the exam still advances our educational objectives or whether a more effective assessment model should replace it.”

The Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) was established under Ghana’s 1987 educational reforms as the bridge between Junior Secondary School (now Junior High School) and both Senior Secondary and TVET institutions.

First administered in 1990, the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) originally served two key functions: to certify completion of basic education and to place students into appropriate secondary-level programs.

Over the years, however, the Basic Education Certificate Examination role has shifted. Today, it primarily determines placement, as most public and private employers seldom use BECE results in recruitment.

Critics argue that the exam’s stanine grading system, focused on norm-referenced ranking rather than absolute performance, can yield artificially constrained grade distributions and mask individual achievement.

This year, a total of 603,328 students, comprising 297,250 males and 306,078 females from 20,395 participating Junior High Schools, are writing the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) for School Candidates.

In a blog post sighted by Pretertiary.com, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) said the number of candidates that registered for this year’s BECE for School is 5.99% higher than the 2024 entry figure of 569,236.

Regarding the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) for Private Candidates, the not-for-profit-making organisation (WAEC) said 1,661 candidates, made up of 858 males and 803 females, are partaking in the examination.

For Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) for Private Candidates, the African Examinations Council indicated this year’s figure is 19.49% higher than the 2024 entry figure of 1,390.

The BECE for School Candidates is being conducted at 2,237 examination centres across the country, while 15 centres in the regional capitals are used for the Basic Education Certificate Examination for Private Candidates.

The organisations, while wishing the candidates well in the examination, urged them to refrain from malpractices and approach all the papers diligently and consciously, and that they would come out with flying colours.