Hijabs will be searched during BECE – Education director

The Municipal Education Director of Effia Kwesimintsim Municipality, Mrs. Kate Biney says very stringent measures will be ensured to prevent cheating in the upcoming Basic Education Certificate Examination (B.E.C.E) that is billed to start on Monday, October 17, 2022. Speaking on the Takoradi-based flagship morning programme Y3nsom with host Kwame Malcolm, on the preparedness of the candidates ahead of the examination, the Municipal Education Director hinted at a thorough search of the candidates. "…West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) has given the needed orientation for supervisors and made it clear what is expected of them. The teachers themselves do not go to the examination centre, then you leave the children to go to the centre and then searched. This time we are going to do thorough searching so if you hear we are frisking their armpits etcetera understand; as males will search males and females attend to females. Due to what happened during WASSCE, WAEC has information on how candidates hide foreign material as now it is not as open as in their shoes. They now hide it in their panties as menstrual pads, in between their belts, even they wear double nose mask and hide it in between; under their neck collars and our Muslim colleagues, their hijabs will be searched;” she emphasised. Mrs Kate Biney said that they will be searched for their pants. “We will search their pants and the women invigilators can notice if one is really menstruating or has hidden a foreign material there. What is happening is unacceptable, the boys can hide it in their scrotum in between their testicles. We will feel the hijabs if it contains any material aside from their hair. We know Muslim ladies do not expose their hair so we will not remove it but when we are suspicious we will ask you to remove it and shake it and wear it again and proceed;” she further explained. Mrs Kate Biney this is to ensure no cancellation occurs because most candidates are not in to cheat and must not be made to pay for the actions and inactions of a few recalcitrant ones. She further revealed that the invigilators will not be retained in a particular class for the full tenure of the examinations but will be rotated. Mrs Kate Biney revealed that the candidates have been well prepared for the examinations ahead. “Even when there was a strike, candidates were going to school in mufti and teachers met to teach them and they were doing peer teaching as well. In my catchment area, Nana Brempon, Coba Yalley and the Effia area even when the schools have locked the pupils were there being prepared. The problem is the perception of “apor” (leakage) so I conditioned them that the “apor” is the past questions and the more they kept on solving them it leaves them better prepared;” she emphasised.