Some candidates from the Cape Coast Metropolis and its environs sitting for this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination have had the opportunity to take practice exams ahead of the final exams.
The exams organized for them by Festive Kids Foundation International, a Cape Coast-based NGO aimed at giving the candidates an experience in external group trial examination which is said to enable candidates to deal with challenges associated with examination including examination anxiety and examination paper mismanagement.
External group trial examination is also said to help candidates check their conduct before, during and after the examination.
Twenty-five (25) schools that partook in the practice exam which started on June 19 and ended on June 23, 2023, include Kakumdo M/A, Ebubonko M/A, and Philp Quarcoo girls.
Others include Kubease M/A, St Andrew Anglican, M/A, Esuekyir M/A, and English & Arabic school among others.
The exams was conducted on the four core subjects – English, Mathematics, Integrated Science and Social Studies as well as Religious and Moral Education, Ghanaian Language and Information and Communication Technology.
The Executive Director of Festive Kids International Foundation, Dr Prince Yeboah Hayford spoke to ATL FM NEWS saying “We realize that the major challenges of the BECE candidates or the problems they have is because they don’t have experience of group practice examination or group external examination before the BECE. Because some of them, the moment they meet people for the first time, anxiety begins to set in. Before you realize their concentration is on the new people he has seen rather than the paper he’s going to write.”
This he said made it necessary for the Foundation to give the JHS final year students an experience of group external examination, “because that’s how the BECE itself is.”
Meanwhile, he indicated that the main objective of the examination is to assess, monitor, and evaluate the performance of the candidates, and identify their strengths and weaknesses in the respective examinable subjects.
He added that it is also to identify the gaps between their current performance and what is expected of them in the BECE and to compare their performance with the schools in the same category.
Dr Yeboah Hayford further noted that the examination will be followed by a Conference Roadshow and an Inspiration Day which are all geared towards psyching the students ahead of the final exams.
To the Assistant Headmaster of Kakumdo M/A Basic School, Mr. Albert Doku, the exams achieved it desired purpose of reducing anxiety in the students and thus, he wants the exams to be sustained.
Meanwhile, not all the Basic Schools in the Cape Coast Metropolis benefited from the practice exams and this Festive Kids Foundation International says it is because of financial constraints.
Mr Jonathan Domenya who teaches Integrated Science at Ebubonko M/A Basic School believes that when the JHS final year students in all schools in the Metropolis get the opportunity to write the practice exams, it will impact the Metropolis positively regarding the students’ performance in the BECE.
Mr Domenya thus appealed to stakeholders in education and people who are well-to-do to rally their support behind Festive Kids so they run the programme on a large scale.
While extending their appreciation to the Foundation, some of the students who sat for the exams indicated that the exams had helped them to identify their weaknesses in some of the subjects they will be examined on during the BECE.
They believe they have the opportunity to work on those weaknesses ahead of the BECE to put them in a position that will enable them to answer the BECE questions with ease.
The 2023 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) according to the West African Examination Council (WAEC) is set to begin on August 17, 2023.
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Source: Rosemond Asmah/ATLFMNEWS
