Prof Opoku Amankwa
Over 2,000 candidates are expected to take this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) which is scheduled to begin on Monday, February 10.
A statement released by the West African Examination Council (WAEC) said the examinations would be conducted from February 10 to February 15, 2020.
It said the examination would take place at 11 centres across the country for the candidates who are made of made up of 1,210 males and 944 females.
“The council wishes all candidates success in their papers and urges supervisors and invigilators to be vigilant during the examination,” the statement added.
BECE for private candidates was introduced in 2015 by WAEC; it is aimed at offering another opportunity to BECE candidates who failed to make the grade for admission to senior high schools (SHSs) and technical institutes in the country.
The initiative has seen a number of candidates re-sitting for the paper since its inception.
This year’s BECE for private candidates will be the sixth since the inception of the initiative which began in 2015 with 1,181 candidates.
In 2016, 1,418 candidates sat for the examination while there were 1,379 candidates in 2017.
The year 2018 recorded the highest number of candidates, 11,856, which could have been as a result of the introduction of the Free SHS policy.
By Gibril Abdul Razak