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The West African Examination Council (WAEC) has said it will not schedule new examination sittings for candidates of Bunkpurugu in the Northern Region, who could not take part in the first Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) papers.

“They would have to use the February 2018 window for re-sitters because once it is gone, you can’t go back and salvage that one,” the head of WAEC Ghana, Rev. Samuel Ollenu, said to Citi News.

Over 200 BECE candidates from two communities in the District were unable to sit for the English and Religious and Moral Education papers taken on Monday, due to a change in their examination centres. 

The candidates had hoped for an opportunity to write the papers in the coming days, but this hope has been shattered by Rev. Ollenu’s explanation. The ultimate effect is that, the affected students will not enter Senior High School this year [2017] with their mates, all things being equal.

The WAEC head explained that his outfit “entered into discussions with the district director of education, and now an emergency centre has been formed in the town which is a place of their choice, and we provided them with examination materials and the questions and this morning they wrote.”

Rev. Ollenu also explained why it would not be possible for the students to have a special sitting.

“The conduct of standardized tests is not like a classroom test. It has got its own procedures and rules and regulations, and if we did that, it would create difficulties for the grading systems and classroom tests. So the best way to handle this is for them to use the February window.”

“We should be thankful that there is a window like that for them to take advantage of,” Rev. Ollenu noted.