WASSCE to replace SSSCE next academic year

Kumasi, Aug 27, GNA- The West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) is to replace the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSSCE) from next academic year. The examination will be conducted in May/June instead of July/August, the Reverend Ama Afo Blay, Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), said on Tuesday.

It means Ghana can now join the other West African countries that have agreed to internationalise their Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations.

Speaking at the opening of the Regional Selection Committee for Senior Secondary Schools (SSS) meeting in Kumasi, Rev Afo Blay said the computerised system of admitting students into SSS in the country will be operational in September 2005.

She said the major groundwork has been done and that the initial piloting, involving a specific number of regions is in progress. The second piloting of the system, the Director-General said, would be carried out with the raw scores of all 2004 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates in all the 10 regions. "It is expected that all teething problems would have been addressed by the end of that exercise to enable the computerised system become operational in September, 2005".

"Thus when the computerised system becomes operational, candidates will no longer be limited to selecting schools within the same region, neither will it matter if they select a particular school as their second or third choice provided their performance is high enough".

She reminded headmasters and headmistresses that the approved aggregate for admission still remained six to 30 and that they should conduct the selection exercise with fairness and integrity.

Mr James A. Boamah, the Ashanti Regional Chairman of Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS), appealed to his colleagues to observe the guidelines governing the selection and replacement of students for SSS programmes.

He appealed to them to study all cards before placing them when necessary.

Mr Boamah, who is also the Headmaster of Technology Secondary School in Kumasi, told them that candidates could only be rejected if they do not qualify in terms of aggregate or the selected programmes are not offered in their schools. He said candidates can be rejected if vacancies in their schools of choice are exhausted.