WAEC gives breakdown of ¢55m budget for WASSCE & BECE 2023

Following the release of GH¢55 million by the government to the West African Examinations Council for the conduct of the Basic Education Certificate Examination and West African Senior School Certificate Examination, an official of the WAEC has given a breakdown of the budget for WASSCE and BECE.

The payment of the GH¢55 million to the Council comes after the Minority in Parliament said a debt the central government owes the WAEC could make it impossible for the 2023 WASSCE and BECE to be administered as planned.

The Deputy Ranking Member on Education Committee, Dr Clement Apaak in an interview with Citi FM monitored by AcademicWeek.com described the debt government owe WAEC as worrisome and needs to be treated with urgency.

“The issue at hand is worrisome because invigilators, supervisors and examiners have not been paid as they ought to and the reason WAEC has been unable to pay them is the government is failing to pay WAEC for fees,” Apaak told Citi.

But, a Public Relations Officer for WAEC, Winifred Ampiaw reacting to Clement Apaak’s allegation said the conduct of the Basic Education Certificate Examination and West African Senior School Certificate Examination will come off as scheduled.

“I can say that we have received some amount of money that will enable us to conduct the exams, for both the 2023 WASSCE and BECE. However, there’s a payment plan to pay the rest,” the WAEC official told Citi FM in an interview.

She explained that of the GH¢55 million paid by the government, GH¢10.5 million will be used for the conduct of the Basic Education Certificate Examination and GH¢40 million for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination.

“So far we have received GH¢10.5 million to be able to conduct the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and GH¢40 million for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE),” the WAEC spokeswoman said.

More than 448,000 prospective students from public and private Senior High Schools (SHSs) across the country are expected to sit for the 2023 edition of the WASSCE for School from July 31, 2023, through to September 26, 2023.

For this academic year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), over 600,000 candidates according to the Wet African Examinations Council (WAEC) will sit for the 2023 national examination slated for August 7 to August 11, 2023.