Final-year junior high school (JHS) students throughout the country will take three new courses on this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) for School Candidates.

Career Technology, Creative Art & Design, and Arabic are new disciplines. The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has announced that all candidates would write Career Technology and Creative Art and Design based on the old Basic Design and Technology (BDT).

On the other hand, candidates at Islamic basic schools will have the option of studying Arabic.

Days Extended

Because of the extra courses, the 2024 examination will last six days rather than the previous five days (Monday through Friday). The test will begin on Monday, July 8, 2024, and conclude the following Monday, July 15, 2024.

To shed more light on the 2024 examination, WAEC’s Head of Public Affairs, John Kapi, told the Daily Graphic that new subjects could be introduced at any time because it was a Ghanaian-only examination, and so it was up to the government to decide what it wanted to teach and students to be tested on.

Mr Kapi stated that the council had completed the candidate registration process and was currently dividing the candidates into groups based on their topics. WAEC, he claimed, was prepared for the examination since all necessary meetings had been completed, and sample questions had been delivered to schools and placed on the council’s website.

“The printing exercise will start very soon, and so we are on course,” he said. In the instance of Arabic, he stated that it was the subject’s first examination at the BECE.

He said the topic was best defined as an elective, and that it could also be written by those who thought they were good at it and wanted a certificate to prove it.
Timetable

According to WAEC’s official agenda, applicants will take English Language and Religious and Moral Education exams on Monday, July 8, 2024. On Tuesday, July 9, 2024, candidates will write Science and Computing, which was previously Information, Communication and Technology (ICT), and then write Social Studies and Creative Art and Design on Wednesday.

Candidates will write Mathematics and Ghanaian Language on Thursday, July 11, 2024, and French and Career Technology on Friday, July 12, 2024.

Arabic will be written on Monday, July 15, 2024.

Prior to enrollment for the BECE for School Candidates, the Ghana Education Service said that the obligatory courses were English Language, Mathematics, General Science, Social Studies, Religious and Moral Education, Career Technology, and Creative Art and Design.

Ghanaian languages, it added, were designated as elective studies, while French, Arabic, and computing were optional.

Curriculum

This year’s BECE applicants will be the first to take the test using the Common Core Curriculum. In light of this, WAEC stated that the adoption of the curriculum will result in distinct examinations for school and private applicants.

The curriculum seeks to address quality via enhanced learning experiences. The new curriculum aims to push students away from rote learning and towards critical learning abilities.

An overspeeding car killed a man and his two-year-old kid near Jukwa on the Twifu Praso-Cape Coast Highway.

The two were riding their motorcycles when the truck drove over them, killing them on the spot.

According to an eyewitness, the minibus driver lost control while attempting to overtake another vehicle, crashing with a motorbike and veering off into the jungle.

About 14 people on board the commercial truck with registration number CR-553-16 were injured to varying degrees and were brought to the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital (CCTH) for treatment.

The remains have been sent to the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital mortuary for autopsy and preservation.

The Jukwa Police Command has also opened an inquiry into the accident.

The Supreme Court has put the lawsuit against the Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, better known as the Anti-LGBTQ Bill, on hold indefinitely.

During a hearing on Wednesday, May 8, 2024, the Supreme Court ruled that the documents filed by Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin’s counsel included intemperate language.

The judge ordered the legal team to produce fresh documents.

Before the adjournment, the court dismissed a preliminary objection submitted by the Speaker’s counsel, Thaddeus Sory.

The attorneys for the plaintiff, television journalist Richard Sky, attempted to change one of the reliefs in the request for an injunction, but Mr Sory objected.

After consideration, the Apex Court presided over by Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, concluded that the preliminary objection was superfluous.

Justice Torkornoo stated that each side has the right to present their case as they see appropriate, and chastised the Speaker’s team, saying, “You have wasted our time and energy for no reason.”

Richard Sky, a journalist, and Amanda Odoi, a researcher, have launched separate lawsuits against the measure, which is currently awaiting President Nana Akufo-Addo’s signature.

Mr Sky claims that Parliament’s approval of the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill is illegal and requests that the highest court declare the bill null and invalid.

Dr. Odoi has also voiced concerns about several sections of the proposed bill.