The Service has urged the candidates to be guided by the principle that, ‘there is honour in achievement’ and that all efforts should be made to avoid all forms of examinations malpractices.

This was in a statement signed by Professor Kwasi Opoku-Amankwah, the Director General of GES and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra. “It is the hope and expectation of management of GES that the Good Lord would grant the candidates Grace, fortitude, courage and the peace of mind to go through the examinations successfully,” it added.

It urged heads and staff of schools, supervisors and invigilators to be very conscious of their responsibilities to the nation, the candidates and to themselves by ensuring that the examinations were conducted in a conducive and incident free atmosphere.The statement assured all stakeholders that, the GES was available and ready to provide all the needed and required support to ensure successful conduct of examinations and appealed to parents and guardians to continue to do same.

This year, 316,985 candidates are taking part in the WASSCE in 946 schools across the country as released by West Africa Examinations Council. Eighteen Togolese candidates including seven females will join their Ghanaian counterparts to write the exams.

Regional statistics indicated that, Ashanti has 74,630 candidates constituting the highest number of total candidates. Western and Brong Ahafo have 47,729 and 35,554 candidates respectively. Greater Accra and Central also represented 33,834 and 32,702 candidates respectively; Northern and Volta have 25,081 and 24,218 candidates; whilst Upper East and Upper West also presented 13,144 and 8,401 candidates.

The first paper commenced yesterday April 3 with Chemistry three (3) practicals, Music, Auto Mechanics Applied Electricity.

The examination is expected to end on May 10, this year.