A Deputy Minister for Education, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, has assured adequate spaces to admit all 600,714 candidates writing this year’s 2023 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
He said there are over 900 Senior High Schools (SHS), Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions waiting to admit the students.
According to him, what is left is for the candidates to pass the BECE so they could also benefit from the government’s Free SHS programme.
He announced this on Wednesday, August 9, when he interacted with some BECE candidates who were writing their examination papers at St. Thomas Aquinas Senior High School in Accra.
The Deputy Minister, who was accompanied by the Greater Accra Director of Education, Stephen Bamfo, assured the candidates of the government’s preparedness to put in place measures to ensure that they received the best of support towards their education.
“Free High School (FSH)/ Free Technical and Vocational Education and Training (FTVET) awaits you so work hard to benefit from the novel policy to shape your future dreams,” he said.
The Assin South MP reminded the candidates to focus on what they can do and desist from accepting any sort of help from anyone since they had different sets of questions, although they were in the same examination hall.
Addressing the media after the monitoring, the Deputy Minister dispelled rumours that BECE was going to be cancelled, saying, “There has not been any discussion or policy to terminate BECE today or tomorrow, the notion should be disregarded.”
Again he explained that “the West African Examination Council (WAEC) remains our partner in education development. We will keep resourcing WAEC so it would continue to discharge its mandate as required of them.”
Mr Ntim Fordjour recounted the supportive role WAEC has played over the years towards the development of education in the country, indicating, “Once in a while, we remit them depending on their needs and the programme they are running.”
However, the Deputy Minister lamented the few isolated infractions at certain examination centres across the country which he described as very unfortunate.
He stated that those involved would be dealt with drastically to serve as a lesson to others as well as deter them from thinking about examination malpractices.
The lawmaker was upbeat that the arrest of the few teachers was evident of the stringent measures put in place to curb all forms of exam malpractice.
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