Why WAEC must Review the Duration of the BECE Timetable

Inasmuch as many educationists disagree with the usage of a standardized examination for as the tool of assessment in the Basic schools due to obvious inequities in schools across Ghana, one cannot help but accept the situation and make suggestions to improve upon its conduct so as not to place a lot of candidates at a disadvantage.

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has been quite conservative in the conduct of its examinations. Despite the change in time tabling and schedule for the Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) in recent years, the five-day period within which the BECE is conducted has remained constant since the inception of BECE in 1993; some thirty years ago.

It is quite sad as we have continued to look on as our candidates with an average age of 15 are handed the arduous cognitive task of writing nine to ten papers in five days; two papers daily.

Even more worrying is the fact that candidates in the Senior High Schools whose ages average 19, much more mature cognitively and physiologically use between twenty-five to thirty days to write a maximum of eight papers.

While older candidates in the SHSs have the advantage of some days to adequately prepare for just one paper a day, our younger ones in the JHSs who have no day break have to prepare for two papers to be written in a single day. This has increased the examinations-associated anxiety and stress, leading to the numerous cases of BECE candidates collapsing and falling sick on examination days, an unfortunate situation which is almost absent in the SHSs examinations. Data from the various health facilities confirms this.

The West African Examination Council needs to reconsider loosening up the compact nature of the BECE time table to be written within a minimum of a two-week period, with only one subject paper written in a day. This will help reduce the anxiety and stress among candidates while giving them ample time to adequately prepare for the next paper.