The Ghana Education Service (GES) has said it is in discussions with the West African Examination Council (WAEC) for the 2021 West African Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) to be moved to September/October.

It has also recommended that the 2021 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) take place in November.

The Director-General of the GES, Professor Kwasi Opoku Amankwa, said the proposal is to allow students to prepare adequately for the exam.

“Per our arrangements, we expect that the next exams will be written in September/October, and we have already started discussions with WAEC on that,” he said at a press conference in Accra on Monday, 4 January 2020.

He added: “We needed to make provision for marking and release of exam results and reopening, so, if we decide on October/November, it will be difficult for WAEC to release the exam [results] early enough for admissions to take place in January.”

“So, per our calculation, we have proposed September /October, and we noticed that when we use these dates, we would have covered 1,700 hours and will only be short of one-hour contact period which we can always make up for,” he added.

Professor Opoku Amankwa also expressed optimism that the exit examination timetables would revert to their normal dates by 2023.

“Looking into the future, WASSCE will be held in July/August and BECE in September for 2022. In 2023, WASSCE will then come back to our normal date which is May/June and then BECE will follow suit,” he said.