The 2019 Basic Education Certificate Examination(BECE) has commenced in earnest in the West Gonja District of the newly created Savannah region.

A total of 833 candidates from 26 public schools and one private school in the district are taking part in the examination which is being conducted at the Assembly Hall of the Damongo S.H.S.

Out of the 833 candidates,431 are males representing 52% and 402 are females representing 48%.

The examination which began on Monday, June 10,2019, is expected to end on Friday, June 15,2019.

The District Chief Executive, Hon. Saeed Muhazu Jibreal in a goodwill message on behalf of the regional minister cautioned the candidates against all forms of examination malpractices; encouraging them to strive to progress to the next level.

He implored the candidates to remain focused with full concentration and obey all the rules and regulations governing the conduct of the examination, stating that, "when your result is cancelled, it means that you can't go to school next year and your colleagues would go leaving you".

He charged candidates to take advantage of the free Senior High School policy introduced by the government and make meaning out of their lives.

The District Director of Education,Mr.Adam Salifu Bigger said they were going to make sure the rules and regulations governing the conduct of the examination are applied to the letter.

He encouraged candidates to endeavour to set a good precedent as pioneer BECE candidates of the newly created Savannah region, admonishing them against all forms of examination malpractices.

He disclosed that they were going to weed out all candidates who managed to register for the examination but were not form three's, adding that, such a practice was contrary to WAEC regulations.

Meanwhile, Ghanaweb's Ananpansah B Abraham can confirm that four candidates have been prevented from writing the examination after they were all identified to form two students.
They include two boys and two girls.

Grapevine information gathered by this writer indicates that the headmasters who managed to register these "non-form three" students would be severely sanctioned by the Directorate to serve as a deterrent to others.

Statistics:

517,332 candidates from 16,871 schools are sitting for the 2019 BECE across the country with 263,616 being males and 153,716 being females.
In the newly created Savannah region,a total of 4,917 candidates are sitting for the examination whilst the North East Region has a total of 9,272 candidates sitting for the examination.

The parent region (Northern region) which birthed the Savannah and North East Regions has a total of 43,961 registered candidates sitting for the examination.

Candidates who qualify into SHS will be the third batch of beneficiaries of government's flagship program of free Senior High School.