The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has urged candidates writing the ongoing Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) to strive for success to enable them enjoy government’s flagship programme, Free SHS policy.

In all, 509,824 candidates from 16,060 schools are expected to write the examination in 1,772 centres throughout the country.

The candidates are made up of 263,295 males and 246,529 females, which is 8.9 percent increase over 2017 figure of 468,060.

Sending his wishes to the candidates on Monday, President Akufo-Addo advised them to respect the rules in the examination.

“I send best wishes to the 500,000 students sitting this year’s BECE. Avoid any form of examination malpractice, and, remember, Free SHS awaits you in September,” he tweeted.

The president in May announced that his government will spend some GH¢453 million of the country’s oil revenue to fund Free SHS.

Last year, when the policy began, about GHC 196,379,893.20 was spent in funding the policy.

Meanwhile using oil revenue to fund the policy has been criticised.

For instance, Dr. Steve Manteaw who chairs the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) says depending solely on the oil revenue to fund the Free SHS policy is not sustainable.