1,181 candidates register for private BECE

The candidates will write the examination at 11 centres across the country.

The Head of Public Affairs of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), Mrs Agnes Teye-Cudjoe, who made this known to the Junior Graphic, said “all the necessary arrangements needed for the smooth take-off of the examination have been put in place.”

“The examination will be conducted in the various regional capitals,” she pointed out, adding that “all the rules and regulations pertaining to BECE for school candidates will  apply.”

Mrs Teye-Cudjoe could, however, not say how many candidates would be writing the examination for the first time since the resit policy was initiated, but indicated that the number for both new BECE candidates and those resitting the examination were 1,181.

The council, she said, had revised the age for first-time candidates from 18 to 16 years to enable more candidates to write the exam.

Under the private BECE policy, candidates can write any number of subjects, between one and nine, including English, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and French.

The registration fees for the resit candidates are GH¢77 for one subject, GH¢87 for two subjects, GH¢96 for three subjects and GH¢105 for four or more subjects.

The use of continuous assessment marks would not be applicable in this instance as candidates would be marked over 100.

Last month, the council extended the deadline for the registration of private candidates to give more prospective candidates the opportunity to register for the examination.

Instead of the registration ending on October 31, 2014, the council extended it to December 31, 2014.

The resit policy states, among other things, that candidates rewriting the examination must provide the index numbers and the year of writing the previous BECE.

However, in the case of first-time candidates, students must be 16 years and above, and under this category, “students in junior high schools (JHSs) are not qualified to register for the examination.”

“The date of birth of candidates will be printed on their certificates and, therefore, unqualified candidates caught writing the examination will have their registration nullified and barred from taking any WAEC examination for two years,” the policy guidelines for the resit has stated.

Each district capital will have one examination centre, provided the candidates in that district are 200 or more. In cases where the candidates are less than 200 in a district, the centre will be moved to the nearest centre/district to make the conduct of the examination a success.

The results of the resit papers are expected to be released in May of the year of the examination.