There won’t be leakages in BECE this year – WAEC assures
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has hinted that its stringent security protocols have been instituted in averting leakages of Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) papers that will commence on Monday, November 15, 2021, this year.
According to WAEC, there would not be leakages this year since officials from the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) have monitored the production process – printing, sorting and packaging of the papers.
Mrs Agnes Teye-Cudjoe, Head of Public Affairs, WAEC National Office, as cited by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) reiterated that “the Council had also increased the number of depots storing confidential materials under strict surveillance”.
The enhanced security Mrs Agnes Teye-Cudjoe believe “would ensure that the papers did not leak before and during the examinations”
Mrs Agnes Teye-Cudjoe, also warned the public to be vigilant of persons “who would be selling fake examination papers”.
She assured, “all COVID-19 safety protocols would be observed during the examination, which would start from Monday, November 15, and end on Friday, November 19”.
“Should a candidate fall sick and a medical report is available, a committee will look into the situation and take a decision”, She added.
But, Mr Kofi Asare, the Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, rejected WAEC’s assurance of no leakages.
He said, “there were not enough assurances from WAEC that this year’s BECE would be leakage-free”.
Per historical events in WAEC related to examinations, Mr Kofi Asare could only hope “that the examining body would put its house in order to prevent the scare of what took place in this year’s West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).”
In anticipation that this year’s BECE results would be better irrespective of the COVID-19 long break, Mr Peter Korda, Head of Public Relations, Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), disclosed that teachers did their best to catch up with the curriculum after the 10-month break last year.
He mentioned that “COVID-19 pushed teachers to go the extra mile to adequately prepare students for the examinations through extra classes and online teaching and assignments”.
Mr Peter Korda, also advised the candidates to “adhere to rules and instructions of the exams”.
Meanwhile, statistics obtained from the Ghana Education Service indicate that 2,158 centres across the country have been created to house a total of 571, 894 pupils who will be sitting for this year’s BECE as against a total of 531,707 and 517,332 candidates who sat for the examination in 2020 and 2019, respectively.
Source: Richard Mensah Adonu | Join our Telegram Group
