BECE Exams Begins

Students writing thier B.E.C.E exams

After close to a decade of basic education, kids across the country begin a weeklong of examinations that will enable them to gain admission to senior high schools when the next academic year is due.

It is a critical period in the educational life of these children and they need all the support from us to see them through the stressful moments.

They have never passed through this before and would need the psychological and physical support from parents, teachers and even siblings who have already passed through the hurdle to enable the kids to surmount the seeming challenging hurdle.

It is our prayer that the weeklong academic activity would be devoid of the blemish which characterised an aspect of the West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) a few weeks ago and which led to the cancellation and rescheduling of one of the papers.

Such would be too much stress for these kids who are writing their first public examination today and so all must be done to ensure a leak-proof examination.

When a few candidates are given the unfortunate and regrettable access to examination papers to give them an advantage over their colleagues, the punishment of a cancellation which follows affects the many others who would otherwise not have had such smelly advantage.

It is rueful, therefore, when other candidates suffer such omnibus punishment for the sins of a few privileged others.

The writing of public examination, the kind the kids are undergoing today, is surely one of the critical acid test for the noble attribute of honesty. It should, therefore, not be compromised on the altar of providing a certain so-called advantage for some candidates which long-term repercussion is bound to be counterproductive to the kids and the nation as a whole. In view of this, we are passionately calling on parents, teachers and candidates alike to avoid this path of dishonesty as a critical means of ensuring a future where we would have honest human resource, which the country can rely on in a most dignifying fashion.

When kids at this stage of their educational life are introduced to cheating, they grow up erroneously thinking that it is normal to cheat in examinations. We stand the risk of raising kids who would grow into cheats when we ignore the drawbacks such conduct bestows upon us.

Previous candidates, who were nabbed over cheating, had their names and schools published in local newspapers. We shudder to think about the psychological blow such kids would suffer seeing their names and even pictures splashed on the pages of newspapers.

They cannot be held responsible for such misdemeanor because kids cannot at their age ask to be given access to examination papers unless the subject is broached by teachers and other adults including, in some instances, parents.

It is important that we educate our kids about how to get used to preparing for examinations without   relying on cheating to pass. Let us help in protecting the integrity of public examinations from this stage.