Basic Education Certificate Examination

The Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) is the main examination that is used to give students admission into secondary or vocational schools in Ghana.^[1] It is written after three years of junior high school education.^[2] BECE is organized by the Ghana Education Service under the Ministry of Education

Candidates in the third year of junior high schools approved by the Ghana Education Service are eligible to take part in this examination.The examination is conducted nationwide in June each year and usually lasts for a week unless there is cancellation or postponement.

Subjects taken

• English language
• Mathematics
• Integrated Science
• Social Studies
• Religious and Moral Education (R.M.E)
• French
• Ghanaian language (Any Ghanaian language offered at candidate's school)
• Basic Design and Technology (B.D.T)
• Information Communication and Technology (I.C.T)

Registration

Schools approved by the Ghana Education Service are eligible to register students to take the BECE each year. The entry period for such approved schools is a six week period that starts in October and ends in November each year. Participating Schools upload their Statement of Entries and School Choice Files on the internet for processing. Continuous Assessment Scores are however submitted on compact disks to the Council.

Grading of candidates

Candidates are graded based on performance in the examination which consists of multiple-choice and written type questions, and Continuous (Internal) Assessment marks provided by the schools. A nine-point scale is used in grading the candidates with Grade 1 denoting the highest performance and Grade 9 the lowest.

Selection of candidates to Senior High School

Candidates are selected to Senior High Schools by the Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS)-The Computerized School Selection and Placement System - a computerized system used by the Ghana Education Service (GES) to place qualified Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates fairly into Senior High School, Technical Institutes, and the Vocational Institution Institute

Review of scripts

Scripts are kept for three months after the release of results before they are finally destroyed. During this time, review of scripts for a fee is allowed and this is done through the head of a school or an accredited representative of the school since the Basic Education Certificate Examination is a school-based examination.

Certification

Certificates for successful candidates are produced within a month after results are released. They are sent to the schools for collection by individual candidates. Certificates are produced once, and so certificates which get lost or damaged after collection are not replaced.^[3]

2015 Cancellation

The 2015 edition of the BECE started on Monday June 15 with the English Language and Religious and Moral Education papers, and was originally scheduled to end on Friday June 19 with the Information Communication Technology (ICT) paper.^[4] On Wednesday June 17, which was two days into the examinations, the West Africa Examinations Council cancelled five subjects claiming the papers had been 'compromised' and the cancellation was necessary to safeguard both the sanctity of the examinations and the integrity of certificates issued by the body.^[5] In the official statement to announce the cancellation, WAEC explained that the leakage was so widespread that some questions were being shared using the WhatsApp messaging platform.^[6]

The following papers were cancelled:

• English language 2
• Religious and Moral Education 2
• Integrated Science 2
• Mathematics 2
• Social Studies 2

All the five cancelled papers were re-administered on June 29 and June 30, 2015.^[7]

References