This year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) for school candidates will feature three new subjects for final-year junior high school (JHS) students. The new additions include Career Technology, Creative Art and Design, and Arabic.
Career Technology and Creative Art and Design are compulsory subjects, derived from the previous Basic Design and Technology (BDT) course. All candidates will be required to write these two subjects as part of the BECE.
Arabic, on the other hand, will be an optional subject, specifically for candidates in Islamic basic schools. This means that only students from these schools will have the opportunity to write the Arabic exam.
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has announced these changes to enhance the curriculum and provide students with a broader range of skills and knowledge. The new subjects will be part of the BECE assessment, which is a crucial milestone in the education journey of Ghanaian JHS students.
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Extended Days
The 2024 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) will take place over six days, from Monday, July 8, 2024, to Monday, July 15, 2024, due to the introduction of new subjects. This is an extension from the previous five-day examination period, which typically took place from Monday to Friday.
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John Kapi, Head of Public Affairs at WAEC, explained that new subjects are allowed to be introduced anytime considering that said examination is taken solely by a group of students.
“New subjects can be introduced any time since it is an examination that is solely Ghanaian, and so it is the government that determines what it wants to be taught and students examined in. This flexibility has allowed for the addition of Career Technology, Creative Art and Design, and Arabic to the examination,” he said.
Kapi also assured that WAEC is fully prepared for the examination and is currently putting measures in place to group students.
“The council has just finished the registration of candidates and is now going to do the breakdown of candidates writing the various subjects… All meetings related to the examination have been concluded, and sample questions have been sent to schools and posted on the council’s website, ” he added.
With the introduction of new subjects and an extended examination period, the 2024 BECE aims to provide a more comprehensive assessment of students’ knowledge and skills.
“The printing exercise will start very soon, and so we are on course,” he emphasised. In the case of Arabic, he said it was the first time the subject was being examined at the BECE.
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He said the subject could be best described as an elective, and could also be written by persons who believed they were proficient in it and wanted a certificate to that effect.
Timetable
Per the official timetable released by WAEC, candidates will write English Language and Religious and Moral Education on Monday, July 8 2024.
On Tuesday, July 9 2024, candidates will write Science and Computing, which was previously Information, Communication and Technology (ICT), and then write Social Studies and Creative Art and Design on Wednesday, July 10 2024.
