In a visit to some schools in Accra, candidates were seen in their working gears busily undertaking various projects that they have been required to do in response to questions posed in the examination.

In undertaking the projects, the candidates were seen using various tools including chisels, scissors, cutters, needles, threads, awls, pliers, hammers, tape measures, mallets and office pins, to their work in Leather and Sculpture, Graphic Designs and Textiles.

Requirements

While others stood to do their practical, others sat, depending on what they were required to do per the question they were responding to.

The questions were given to the candidates two weeks ahead of time to study them and then respond appropriately.

Present to observe the examination were invigilators and supervisors.

The schools the Daily Graphic team visited included the Accra High School, Labone Senior High School and the St Thomas Aquinas Senior High School.

At the Accra High School 85 candidates are taking part in the examination while 143 others were at the Labone SHS and 90 at the St Thomas Aquinas.

Absentee

There was no absentee at the Accra High School while there was one each at the St Thomas Aquinas and the Labone SHS.

The supervisor at the Accra High School, Noble Tu, told the Daily Graphic that the examination was going on smoothly.

He said the entire last week was devoted for Leather and Sculpture and this week would be for Graphic Designs and Textiles and other week being Picture Making.

Two students of the school – Kelvin Owusu and John Atter - said they did not have any problem as far as the examination was concerned.

They expressed the hope of excelling in the examination.

At the Labone SHS, Bernard Ayivi and Johanna Bubune were also hopeful of passing in the examination.

At the St Thomas Aquinas, the supervisor – Dennis Kodie, also confirmed the smooth conduct of the examination in the schools.

He said the school recorded an absentee after one of the candidates was involved in an accident.

Success

A student at the school, Sylvester Affram, said at the end of the day, their efforts would be crowned with success.

The Ghana Only version of the WASSCE-SC 2023 began on July 31, 2023 in the country with project works in Basketry, Ceramics and Graphic Design.

In all, a total of 447,204 candidates, comprising 211,834 males and 235,370 females will sit for the examination at 834 centres across the country.

The total candidature represents an increase of 24,321 over last year’s candidature of 422,883.

In all, final-year students from 975 second cycle schools will participate in the examination, which is being written for the second time in Ghana.

There will be a total of 834 supervisors, 2,243 assistant supervisors and 14,907 invigilators to man the examination.

Ghanaian candidates are writing the Ghana only WASSCE-SC for the second successive time because the other four-member countries of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) — Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone and The Gambia — have returned to the May/June calendar and had administered the WASSCE for their school candidates.

The four countries have had their academic calendars streamlined to enable them to write the examination in May/June, as Ghana sticks to the ‘new normal’ calendar occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.  

At a press conference in March this year, WAEC said the rules and regulations for dealing with cases of irregularity in the council’s examinations for both the WASSCE and the Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) had been revised, and that they included destruction of exhibits, posting live questions on the Internet, refusal to grant timely access to the school premises and the misconduct of examination officials.

It said the revised rules were available on the council’s website and heads of schools were urged to sensitise their candidates to them.