Alhaji Shani Alhassan Saibu, the Northern Regional Minister, has interacted with candidates writing the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in the Northern Region encouraging them to approach it with all seriousness to achieve better results.

He shared words of motivation with them and advised them to do away with examination fears saying: "Keep your composure, and look at the paper as just any other examination and deliver."

"You have already achieved a lot by coming this far in your academic journey but what will crown it is success in these exams," he said, and urged them to approach the papers with high sense of focus and determination to succeed.

Alhaji Saibu was accompanied by Dr Peter Attafuah, the Northern Regional Director of Education, to tour centres at Kalpohin Senior High School(SHS), Tamale SHS, Northern Business SHS, and Islamic Science SHS in the Sagnarigu Municipality.

He also toured the Savelugu SHS and Pong-Tamale SHS in the Savelugu Municipality to interact with the candidates.

Alhaji Saibu challenged them to make the region proud, expressing the hope that they would help change the narrative in terms of performance in the WASSCE.

Dr Attafuah prayed for retentive memory for the candidates to enable them to give good accounts of themselves.

This year's WASSCE started on Monday across the country with the writing of the English Language Paper. It will end on October 08.

In the Northern Region, candidates from 31 public schools and five private schools comprising 12,415 boys and 8,953 girls are expected to write the exams.