BECE, WASSCE will be held until contrary directives from the president are issued – WAEC

The Public Relations Officer of the West Africa Examination Council, Agnes Teye Cudjoe, says the examination body will continue running its operations until further directives from the president are released.

Her reaction follows concerns raised by a coalition of teacher unions to include final year students in the observation of the President’s isolation directive amidst the Coronavirus outbreak.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, while addressing the citizenry on coronavirus said students taking part in the 2020 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) “will be allowed to attend school to prepare for their examinations, but with prescribed social distancing protocols.”

The unions which include GNAT, NAGRAT, TEWU and CCT-GH have however appealed to the president to make a case for the change in the timetable for both Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) candidates so as not to expose students to the deadly virus.

“We further call on the government to engage WAEC member states to consider a possible change in the WASSCE timetable for the sake of the students,” the group said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Reacting to this, the PRO for WAEC, Agnes Teye Cudjoe, has explained that the examination board will comply with the President’s directive without interference.

“We are all Ghanaians and when the president was addressing the nation, he gave some directives. He specifically spoke on how final year students are to be treated in the midst of the outbreak. We will continue to obey those directives until the president comes out with other orders for us to carry out. For now, we will just do as the president said,” she said.