This year’s West Africa Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) would go down as extraordinary for many reasons.

The examination which serves as the transitional final examination to be written by Senior High School students, as they move on the education ladder is taking place at the time the world is battling a pandemic named coronavirus that has killed thousands of people across the world.

Also known as COVID-19, the disease has infected millions of people the world over, creating fear, panic and anxiety in many countries due to lack of knowledge and vaccine about the disease that is killing people of every level in society.

What is worse is that, many countries have been forced to lockdown and to adopt health and safety measures to curb its spread.

In spite of all the havoc that the disease is wrecking on mankind, education unlike other aspects of our lives cannot wait. That is why in the midst of the pandemic, schools have had to reopen for students to return and continue with their education.

In all, 375,737 candidates, made up of 187,574 males and 188,163 females from 976 schools across the country are participating in the examination at 796 centres.

Yesterday, Visual Arts students set the ball rolling with the practical aspect of the examination with other core and elective papers expected to be written in the ensuing weeks.

The Ghanaian Times acknowledges the strenuous circumstances under which these children are writing a life changing examination and urges them to be resolute in their quest for higher education.

We urge them to remain focused and keep their eyes on the ball and make themselves and their parents proud. They owe this to themselves first because of the important role education plays in life.

The Ghana Education Service (GES) and the West African Examination Council (WAEC) have assured that all measures have been put in place to ensure safety and at the same time protect the sanctity of the examination.

We expect them to live up to expectation and make this historic examination devoid of more controversies. They have been put in positions of trust and this trust must not be broken.

The virus is still lurking around and in a critical time like this, it would be regrettable should some of the candidates be infected thus the need to uphold the safety of the students cannot be overstated.

The Ghanaian Times wishes all candidates the best in their examination and look forward to hearing that they did not only conquer the examination but the virus as well.