EduWatch Director hints 2023 provisional BECE results release date

The Executive Director of Africa Education Watch (EduWatch), Kofi Asare says the provisional BECE results of Junior High School students who sat for the national examination will be ready in the second week of November 2023.

In an interview with Daily Graphic, he said the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) after two weeks will release the 2023 BECE results for subsequent computer placement of the candidates into their preferred second cycle school.

Commenting on the 2023/2024 Senior High School (SHS) academic calendar released by the Ghana Education Service (GES), Kofi Asare said the second cycle school calendar would require a lot of explanation for parents to understand.

For instance, he said, it was not proper for those who would be going to Form Two under the transitional calendar to report to school on March 8, 2024, when Form One students under the single-track calendar would have started their academic year today, November 1, 2023.

“So they (Form Two students under the transition calendar) would start their academic year in March next year, while those in the single track are starting theirs next month,” the Africa Education Watch Executive Director said.

In the case of Form One students reporting to school in December, he said that was possible since the BECE results would be ready in two weeks, after which they would be released and the students placed in their schools of choice.

Concerning Form Three students, he said, there were different dates for the completion of the academic year under both calendars. Explaining further, he said the Form One students would be spending more days in school than at home, which was good.

A total of 600,714 candidates, comprising 300,323 boys and 300,391 girls from 18,993 Junior High Schools participated in the 2023 BECE for School Candidates which began on Monday, August 7, 2023, to Friday, August 11, 2023.

With regard to the 2023 BECE for Private Candidates, a total entry figure of 1,743 candidates was recorded. This is made up of 889 males and 854 females. This year’s figure is 5.4% higher than the entry figure of 1,132 for 2022.

The 2023 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) for School Candidates was held at 2,137 examination centres across the country, while 15 centres mainly in the regional capitals were used for the BECE for Private candidates.