As though their entire lives depended on it, each student who sat in the exam halls of Presbyterian Boys Senior High School and the West African Senior High School had all their unparalleled attention on the papers on their table.

This is a defining moment in their lives as final year students which invariably indicates the transition period from Senior High school to a College, University or the pursuit of other relevant life goals.

Monday, August 3, 2020, over 300,000 final year SHS students drawn from all parts of the country officially begun their WASSCE under the unfavourable conditions of the Novel Coronavirus.

As per usual, GhanaWeb took a brief tour to some senior high schools in the Greater Accra Region to the gauge the mood of students as they commence their over a month-long quest for excellence amidst the pandemic.

The team’s first stop was at the Presbyterian Boys Senior High School (Presec-Legon) where the students, just like their colleagues in other parts of the country had already begun their first paper for the week, Integrated Science.

In an interaction with authorities, they indicated that the paper which was originally scheduled to commence at 8:30 am rather began around 9 am due to delays in transporting the exam papers to the centre.

Assistant headmaster in charge of Academic, Mr Obo Sey told GhanaWeb that the exam was “going smooth but just a little delay at the beginning and that is not something that is abnormal. We were supposed to have started at 8:30 but there was a delay of over 30 minutes coming from the depot…”

Similar reasons were given when the news team made its second stop at the West African Senior High School (WASS) in Adenta.

Mr Ofori Antwi, headmaster of the school told GhanaWeb that after he concluded his routine checks at the exam halls, only five students had been reported absent out of the 771 registered candidates.

Despite that, he gave assurances that exams had commenced without hitches “so far everything is going in fine. In fact, we have given every candidate and additional face mask and a bottle of sanitizer to help them observe the protocols…”

On the other hand, however, students who shared their experiences with GhanaWeb after the paper were full of hope and optimism of acing in their papers

At Presec, a student said, “It was normal the questions were standard questions and…this my first paper so I panicked a bit but not abnormal. For the subsequent papers, I hope they all go this way…”

Another said, “By the grace of God it was all good and I believe that we can get a pass. For the next papers, I can only hope for the best knowing that I have learnt and I put my all into it I know that everything will be okay. The coronavirus didn’t really have an effect on how the exam went and all…It’s not just about what you learn it’s a battle of wits and grace…”