Chief stops 260 BECE candidates over exam centers

More than two hundred candidates for this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) from four communities at Bindi South in the Bunpkurugu –Yunyoo district of the Northern region failed to sit for the exams which began Monday, June 5, 2017, following a misunderstanding between chiefs and regional education authorities over location of examination centers.

The candidates; 70 from Kanbatiak Junior High School, Guanging 51, Gbingbamong 79 and 18 Yenupinii were prevented from traveling to Gbankoni primary school center to write the exams by the Chief of Kanbatiak and some residents after education authorities failed to provide a center closer to the communities despite initial pledges.

Narrating the incident to Starr News, a staff at the district education directorate Kolan Bentuaka said the chief of Kanbatiak, largest community in the area, complained about troubles candidates in the area go through every year to write the exams and pleaded for a closer center.

According to him, an agreement was reached between the chief and education authorities in the region for the new center, only for the center to be sent to the Gbankoni community angering the chief and some parents who stopped the candidates today from traveling to the new center with code 81410 for the exams.

The chief did not understand why the center was given to the Gbankoni community instead of Kanbatiak which has bigger number of students writing the exam with many infrastructures.

“The chief of Gbankoni applied by written form to the Ghana Education Service and also the chief of Kanbatiak also went and verbally informed them of a center. The BNI was dispatched and they found that the Gbankoni has all it takes for the center.

“Just about the time the exam was about to start, it erupted that the students were refusing to write the exam at Gbankoni.  What is happening is that, they refused to come and write the exam- and they didn’t go. The parents denied their wards coming to write the exam: so currently as I speak to you, because they didn’t award them the center when I went to the center, only one students from Kambatiak came to write”, Kolan narrated.

About 40, 406 candidates are writing the Basic Education Certificate Examination in the region comprising of 22, 174 males and 18, 832 females.

It is a common phenomenon in the region to see candidates trekking long distances from communities to write exams.