A total of 531, 705 final year Junior High School students from 16,000 schools across the country will begin writing the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) today.

Leakages over the years have prompted the West African Examination Council (WAEC) to introduce measures to curb exam malpractices.

This year, one of the measures is to extend the ban on mobile phones and related gadgets to exam officials at various centres.

Data provided by the examination management body indicated that 269,419 of the candidates are males and 262,286, females.

The Ashanti Region presented the highest number of candidates – 106,857 comprising 45,025 males and 52,832, Dailymailgh.com can confirm.

The Greater Accra Region had 94,443 candidates comprising of 45,172 males and 49,271 females.

According to the data, the Central Region also presented 58,105 candidates with 29,467 representing males while females were 28,638.

Western and Western North Regions had 54,432 candidates including 26,373 females.

The data has the Eastern Region presenting 49,993 candidates made up of 25,749 males and 24,244 females.

Bono, Anafi, and Bono East Regions also presented 49,725 candidates including 20,125 females.

Volta and Oti Regions also registered 38,192 candidates with 20, 015 males.

Upper East also registered 22,532 candidates including 11, 775 females.

In the case of Upper West, 13,926 candidates were registered with 7,000 males.

According to the data 17,440 schools were participating with 18,716 invigilators.

The data indicated that supervisors and assistant supervisors were 2,007 and 1,719 respectively.

The examination will end on Friday, September 18, 2020.

Candidates will write the English Language, Religious and Moral Education on Monday, Integrated Science, and Basic Design and Technology on Tuesday.

Information and Communication Technology, and French will be written on Wednesday with Mathematics, Ghanaian Language and Culture on Thursday, before ending with Social Studies on Friday.

An examination timetable issued to headteachers by WAEC confirmed that visually and hearing-impaired candidates would be given an extra one and half hour against the time allotted to other candidates.

The BECE is used by the GES to select qualified candidates for Senior High Schools and Technical Institutes across the country.