This year’s West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) which started yesterday is expected to end on Tuesday September 27, 2022.

A total of 422,883 candidates from 977 schools have been registered for the examination which began with a five-day project work subjects for students offering basketry, ceramics and graphic design.

When the GhanaianTimes visited some schools in Accra yesterday to monitor the preparations of students and teachers, it noticed that schools were opened in full session and ready for the examination.

Candidates were seen getting ready with their equipment while running to their examination halls to kick-start their exams.

Other students in some schools were in motion with less tension with some teachers stating that, since it was the beginning of the examination everything was on point and was hopeful it would continue.

At the Ghana-Lebanon Islamic School (GLIS), circle, 11 visual Arts students were seen undertaking their practical examination as their teachers observed and monitored activities of candidates under strict supervision.

The Headmaster of the School, Sumaila Mohammed, told the GhanaianTimes that the exams had begun on a good note with teachers and students on board to have a successful examination.

“The teachers have done their best as well as the students, they are well prepared and we encourage them to trust what their teachers have taught them to come out with flying colours,” he said.

Mr Mohammed urged parents to complete payments of school fees for their wards in order to peacefully continue with their exams.

“Since the school is a private institution, it is out of the fees we make some expenditure for students to be comfortable, so we are liaising with parents to settle their wards fees as their examination is an important assignment into their future,” he said.

He further advised students against examination malpractices and the buying of exams questions, popularly referred to as ‘APOR’ as that was a disturbance to the integrity of most schools.

“We would not tolerate that when you are caught, we want our academic excellence to be based on strong ethics and good moral values, if a student works hard it would reflect in their results,” he advised.

The Head of the Ghana National Office of West African Examinations Council (WAEC), Mrs Wendy Enyonam Addy-Lamptey on July 20, said only Ghanaian candidates were left to write the 2022 WASSCE.

Explaining that, the other four-member countries of the WAEC thus Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Gambia had returned to the May/June calendar and had administered the WASSCE for their school candidates from May 9 to June 24, this year.

“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,” she said.