A total of 350,888 candidates from 10,016 Junior High Schools would from Monday April 19 to Friday April 23 2010 write this year's Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) at 1,278 centres throughout the country.
They are made up of 191,390 males and 159,498 females.
In a goodwill message to the Candidates, copied to the Ghana News Agency on Sunday, Mr Alex Tettey-Enyo, Minister of Education, urged them to refrain from all malpractices likely to jeopardize their future.
He said: "It is my hope and prayer that all the efforts your teachers have made in teaching you all these years will reflect in your results."
Mr Tettey-Enyo, on behalf of the Ministry of Education and on his own behalf, congratulated the candidates for going through the basic education course saying that he was optimistic that they would perform well because "throughout your education your teachers have prepared you adequately for the examinations".
He pledged the Government's preparedness to ensure that additional infrastructural facilities were provided in the Senior High Schools for their studies come September 2010.
Meanwhile the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has urged all stakeholders to support this year's BECE by reporting any issues of irregularity to the Council.
The Council said it had put in place the necessary measures to ensure that the Examination was conducted successfully and called on all persons to support and make it a success.
This was contained in a statement Mrs Agnes Teye-Cudjoe, Principal Public Affairs Officer of WAEC, signed and copied to the Ghana News Agency last Thursday.
The statement noted that the Council had held sensitisation programmes, media briefings and publicity campaigns to highlight on the rules and regulations governing the conduct of the Examination.
"Supervisors, invigilators and candidates are urged to pay attention to these rules and regulations to avoid the commission of any examination irregularities."
It reminded all stakeholders about the two new rules introduced last year, which included the cancellation of subject results, if a candidate failed to complete the required particulars such as index number and name on the front page of the answer booklet at the beginning of a paper.
It said a subject result would also be cancelled if a candidate wrote with pencil instead of ink or shaded with ink instead of pencil.
A goodwill message to the Candidates Mr Charles Parker Allotey, Head of Public Relations, signed on behalf of the Ghana Education Service and copied to the GNA said: "We have no doubt (whatsoever) that as candidates you will all enter the examination room with confidence because you have prepared adequately."
It admonished the candidates to eschew all forms of examination malpractice, which unfortunately has been on the rise in recent times and drew the attention of all supervisors, invigilators and candidates to the rules and regulations governing the conduct of the Examination.
The statement said the number of subjects for selection into Senior High Schools for September 2010 would now be five instead of six, previously.
The subjects are English Language; Mathematics; Integrated Science; Social Studies and one other best subject.
The grade in each subject for placement into the Senior High School would not be lower than grade five with an aggregate of 25 instead of the 30, previously.
The statement said the computerized system would still be used to process the raw scores obtained in the subjects for the selection.