A total of 5,183 candidates from both the public and private schools in the Tema Metropolis are writing the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) which began on Tuesday.

Mr. John Nyahe, Examination Coordinator at the Tema Metropolitan Education Office, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Tuesday that the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) was conducting the examination in 23 centres in the Metropolis until 16 May.

He said six schools each, came from the private and the public sectors.

Some of the private schools whose students sat for the WASSCE were, Exaca Senior High School (SHS), Deks SHS, Gita SHS among others.

The public schools are Tema SHS, Our Lady of Mercy SHS and Chemu SHS among others.

The Examination Coordinator said candidates of some private schools wrote their paper in the WAEC hall in Tema.

He said materials came in time for the examination to start on time at 08300 hours.

He added that the paper started on a good note without any malpractices, and hoped that the Tema Metropolis would record an incidence free examination this year just as like last year.

Meanwhile, the examination took off smoothly at all the centres visited by the GNA in the Metropolis. Tema SHS had a total number of 462 students with 252 males and 210 females and no absentee.

Our Lady of Mercy SHS recorded one absentee out of a total of 256 students made up of 113 males and 144 females.

Four hundred and eighty-nine candidates sat for the examination at Chemu SHS with one absentee. Two hundred and sixty-seven males and two hundred and fourteen females make the number.