The Deputy Minister for Education, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, has announced that there are enough spaces to admit all 600,714 candidates writing this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) into the over 900 Senior High Schools (SHS) and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions.
He said that all the candidates needed to do was pass the BECE in order to benefit from the Free SHS programme.
He made this announcement while interacting with some BECE candidates who were writing their examination papers at the St. Thomas Aquinas Senior High School in Accra.
The Deputy Minister, who was accompanied by the Greater Accra Director of Education, Mr Stephen Bamfo, assured the candidates of the government’s commitment to providing them with the best possible support for their education.
“Free SHS/Free TVET awaits you, so work hard to benefit from this novel policy and shape your future dreams,” he said.
The Assin South MP urged the candidates to focus on their own work and not to accept any help from anyone, as they all had different sets of questions, even though they were in the same examination hall.
In a press briefing after the monitoring, the Deputy Minister dispelled rumors that the BECE was going to be cancelled, saying, “There has been no discussion or policy to terminate the BECE today or tomorrow. This notion should be disregarded.”
He also explained that “the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) remains our partner in education development. We will continue to resource WAEC so that it can continue to fulfill its mandate as required.”
Rev. Ntim Fordjour recounted the supportive role that WAEC has played over the years in the development of education in Ghana, stating that “from time to time, we remit funds to WAEC depending on their needs and the programs they are running.”
The Deputy Minister lamented the few isolated infractions that had occurred at certain examination centers across the country, which he described as very unfortunate.
He stated that those involved would be dealt with severely as a lesson to others and to deter them from engaging in examination malpractice.
Rev. Ntim Fordjour was confident that the arrest of the few teachers was evidence of the stringent measures that had been put in place to curb all forms of examination malpractice.
