FINAL-YEAR students in junior high schools (JHSs) all over the country yesterday began an important phase in their academic lives as they commenced this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
A total of 350,888 candidates are expected to sit for the examination over a five-day period at various centres throughout the country.
For the candidates, this is an important terminal point in their academic lives expected to usher them into the next phase of their academic journey should they make good grades.
Parents and teachers, on the other hand, are expectant and praying that their children and students will make them proud.
Examinations, such as the BECE, are expected to test the knowledge acquired by candidates after going through a period of tutelage.
They are also expected to test the ability of candidates to apply whatever they have learnt to real life situations, thereby ensuring that the education they have acquired is meaningful to themselves and society.
The DAILY GRAPHIC wishes all BECE candidates well and hope that their hours of studying will be well rewarded with good grades in the examination.
In this regard, we urge them to remain calm as they strive to do their best, bearing in mind that the examination is also part of their training and that it is not anybody’s intention to fail them. It is just to test their ability to recall and apply what they have studied.
The candidates also need to note that examinations are part of their training as budding academics and professionals and in the course of writing their answers they are expected to exhibit discipline, composure and tact.
It is our hope that the candidates will exhibit a high sense of discipline and avoid the temptation to cheat in the examination.
One cannot discount the fact that there are some candidates who may find the going difficult in the course of the examination. These may include both those who may have studied hard and others who may have done very little or virtually nothing.
For such candidates, there is the need to emphasise that no matter the difficulty encountered in answering the questions, there should be no recourse to any examination malpractice or cheating.
Inasmuch as examination success is desired and very important, examinations are not a do-or-die affair that must be passed “at all cost”, even if it means ‘smuggling’ materials into the examination hall.
And while candidates have the right to predict the questions they expect to ‘drop’, it is our hope that such predictions will not form the foundation of their studies. In the same vein, we hope that candidates will avoid chasing supposed leaked questions that usually turn out to be the creation of a few ‘smart’ people who only seek to cash in on the anxiety of students.
The DAILY GRAPHIC, therefore, urges school heads, inviligators and officials of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) to ensure that there is stringent invigilation of the students to ensure that the integrity of the examination is not tainted so that it will reflect the true picture of the output of the students.
The country’s education, despite the challenges, is still lauded across the continent and continues to attract many students from sister African countries and that must be preserved.
We appeal to all candidates, school heads, WAEC officials and inviligators to contribute towards a very successful BECE to again emphasise our collective commitment to the provision of quality education in the country.
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