The 2022 Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) is scheduled to start today, Monday, October 17 at 2,038 centres across the country.
It is the first time schools and private candidates are sitting the exams.
In a statement issued ahead of the exams, the West African Examination Council (WAEC) said it decided to organise the exams for both private and schools candidates this year as a result of the consistently low entries for the private candidates over the years.
This year’s BECE will, therefore, see a total of 552,276 candidates from 18,501 schools across the country take the exams for school candidates while a total of 1,132 private candidates have registered for the exams and will take the papers at 15 selected centres.
Out of the number for school candidates, 276,988 are males while 275,288 are females. The private candidates are made up of 634 males and 498 females.
According to WAEC, the total number of candidates representing the schools is 3.48 percent less than the 2021 figure of 572,167.
For private candidates, the number is 6.09 percent higher than last year’s figure of 1,067.
It noted that all appropriate measures have been put in place to ensure a successful examination.
“The Council is advising candidates to be focused and be on the alert for the activities of ‘examination social media racketeers’ whose primary aim is to make money through deception.”
The exams starts with Social Studies and ICT on Monday.