Free SHS awaits you, no malpractice; Akufo-Addo tells BECE candidates

The Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) commences today (Monday) with over 500,000 candidates expected to sit for the sub-regional examination.

It is considered the biggest test in the educational career of students because notwithstanding the sometimes countless trial papers written in preparation for it, the BECE is basically the first external exams.

A lot of work goes into preparing for it. Both at home and in school, candidates are taken through extra tuition and various spiritual exercises in most situations.

There is also often a temptation to cheat in the exams. President Akufo-Addo has cautioned all candidates to desist from any form of malpractice during the exams. 

Posting on his Twitter handle Monday, the President wished all the candidates well and took the chance to tout the Free SHS programme, saying that the candidates stand to benefit when they get into Senior High. 

“I send best wishes to the 500,000 students sitting this year’s BECE. Avoid any form of examination malpractice, and, remember, Free SHS awaits you in September,” the post read.

TWEET to be embedded

Speaking on the AM Show on the Joy News channel Monday, Vivian Ampere, a parent of one of the candidates recounts the preparations she took her son through.

For Vivian, it is the third time she is going through the experience of preparing a ward for the exam so it is quite easy.

“We [Vivian and her son] take the past questions and I help him to solve it. Then I supervise him to solve it alone and then I mark it and the areas he doesn’t do well, I encourage him to focus on them and then he improves in subsequent times,” she told host of the show Mamavi Owusu Aboagye.

Responding to the advice she gave her son to guide him through the period of the exam, Vivian highlighted the need for her son and by extension all candidates to focus on the next paper at all times.

“I told him not to waste time discussing the questions after the paper because what you cannot change what you have written,” she said.

“Some of them tend to confuse one another because you may have written the correct answer but the confidence with which someone pitches the wrong answers to you may demoralise you for the rest of the papers,” she added.

Vivian also told the show she uses motivation to push her children to keep their eyes on the prize.

“…so for my son, I asked him what he wants and I promised to get it for him if he does well so it serves as a motivation for him,” she stated.

Some callers who spoke to the show seemed worried about the unnecessary pressure put on students in relation to Senior High Schools they have to select and the programmes of study that they will have to pursue in those schools.

“Some parents know that their wards are not good in mathematics and science related courses but they force them to choose General Science because they want them to be medical doctors, what the child wants becomes secondary,” one caller said.

Some callers who also spoke to the show,  took time to send goodwill messages to their loved ones writing the exam.

“In 2005 when I was writing, my grandmother used prayers to support me…now I wish my sister good luck as she writes hers this week,” Koko Ampong texted the show.

Meanwhile, unlike previous years, the candidates will choose the preferred schools after the exams and not before.

Ghana Education Service (GES) has said some changes in the school selection policy and the need for WAEC to adjust its website to fit the policy change is to blame for the delay.

Although GES says it is a onetime thing, some callers into the AM show lauded the initiative saying that the students are in better place to choose schools and their course of study when they know how they performed in the exams.  

Read Full Story