The Ghana Only version of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School Candidates (SC) reaches a key stage today, Wednesday, August 23, 2023, with all the candidates sitting for the Oral English examination.
The Oral English examination is a key requirement for the WASSCE-SC and forms part of the English Language paper.
In view of that, all candidates are required to take the paper.
The WASSCE-SC began on July 31 in the country, with project works in Basketry, Ceramics, and Graphic Design.
After today’s examination, all the candidates will, on Monday, August 28, 2023, write Social Studies, a core paper, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) timetable for the WASSCE-SC, has indicated.
Another core paper, English Language, is also slated for Thursday, September 7, 2023, with Core Mathematics taking place on Thursday, September 14, 2023.
Integrated Science, which is also a core paper, is scheduled for Monday, September 18, 2023.
The examination ends on Tuesday, September 26, 2023, with Literature-In-English (Drama & Poetry), Jewellery and Woodwork.
Candidature
In all, a total of 447,204 candidates, comprising 211,834 males and 235,370 females, will sit for the examination at 834 centers across the country.
The total candidature represents an increase of 24,321 over last year’s candidature of 422,883.
In all, final-year students from 975 second-cycle schools will participate in the examination, which is being written for the second consecutive time in Ghana.
There will be a total of 834 supervisors, 2,243 assistant supervisors, and 14,907 invigilators to manage the examination.
Ghanaian candidates are writing the Ghana-only WASSCE-SC for the second successive time because the other four-member countries of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) — Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia — have returned to the May/June calendar and have administered the WASSCE for their school candidates.
The four countries have had their academic calendars streamlined to enable them to write the examination in May/June, as Ghana sticks to the ‘new normal’ calendar occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Girls dominate
Girls have outnumbered the boys in the ongoing WASSCE-SC for the second successive time in a year.
For instance, out of the 447,204 candidates writing the WASSCE-SC, 211,834 are males and 235,370 are females.
Last year, the girls were more than the boys as well.
Out of the total number of 422,883 candidates, 203,753 were males while 219,130 were females.
Statistics from the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) made available to the Daily Graphic indicated that the Ashanti Region would present the highest number of candidates; 107,061, made up of 51,404 males and 55,657 females.
The Ahafo, Bono, and Bono East regions together would have the second-highest number of candidatures of 65,731, comprising 31,341 males and 34,390 females.
Eastern Region comes third in place with 60,516 candidates – 28,120 males and 32,396 females, while the Central Region, with some of the top second-cycle schools in the country, has 54,084 candidates involving 24,520 males and 29,564 females.
Others
Forty-two thousand three hundred and thirty-eight candidates (19,705 males and 22,633 females) would participate in the examination in the Greater Accra Region, while the Volta and Oti regions would jointly present 37,594 candidates; 18,408 males and 19,186 females.
In the case of the Western and Western North regions, 32,705 candidates would sit for the WASSCE-SC.
Moreover, 25,295 candidates (13,297 males and 11,998 females) are expected to participate in the examination in the Northern, North East and Savannah regions.
The entry figures of the candidates also showed that 13,826 (6,370 males and 7,456 females) final-year senior high school students would write the examination in the Upper East Region.
The Upper West Region would have 8,054 candidates (3,836 males and 4,218 females).
