Buduatta Junior High School in the Gomoa East District had some final year students left behind at the beginning of the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) on Monday because the principal allegedly spent cash that was supposed to pay for registration fees.
Students who were unable to take the exam were overheard sobbing loudly. In the meantime, the school’s principal had disappeared. On Monday, a group of upset parents gathered on school grounds and addressed the media to vent their frustrations.
According to one parent, her child was denied access to the exam after telling her that neither her name nor her index number were on the centre’s roster. Another parent stated that it was unfair to put the kids in this situation after they had worked so hard to prepare for the examination.
He claims that children will experience emotional stress because of it. Therefore, he requested that the school’s principal address the issue. Another worried parent voiced support for the government taking action against the headmaster to prevent incidents from happening again.
When they called the principal to report the issue, he allegedly asked who he was talking to and gave no explanation. More than 600,000 students around the country are taking the BECE this week.
The West African Examinations Council’s Head of Public Affairs, John Kapi, has stated that marking of the 2023 Basic Education Certificate Exam papers (BECE) will be delayed if the government does not release additional money.
On Monday’s episode of Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, he said that the government has given GHC10,500,000 which is roughly 15% of the entire payment for the 2023 B.E.C.E. In order to ensure that the processing and marking of scripts proceeds without a hitch, he expects that the government will provide an additional fund from the remaining 75%.
“For now, we’ve been able to print and we are conducting, but for marking and processing, we may not be able to complete that because we need more funds,” he said.
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