The West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) has issued guidelines for the conduct of the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) for private candidates.

A statement issued by Mrs Agnes Teye-Cudjoe, Principal Public Relations Officer of WAEC, and copied to the Ghana News Agency, in Accra on Thursday, said “the Examination will be known as the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) for private candidates”.

It said the examination is opened to re-sitters and first-time sitters, explaining that a re-sitter must provide the index number and year of examination for his/her previous sitting of the BECE, while a first-timer must be 18 years or above.

It, however, warned that students in Junior High Schools are not qualified to register for the examination.

It said the date of birth of candidates would be printed on their certificates, whereas unqualified candidates caught taking part in the examination would have their registration nullified, and be barred from taking any WAEC examination for two years.

Candidates may take a number of subjects ranging from one to nine, it said.

“The examination is private; therefore, candidates will be required to pay for the full cost of the examination. The fees for the examination will be made available online at the Council’s website – www.waecgh.org.

No government subsidy is expected,” the statement said.

It said each district capital would have one examination centre provided the candidature in that district is 200 or more.

It explained that in cases where the candidature for the examination is less than 200, the centre would be moved to the nearest Centre/District to make the conduct of the examination viable.

It said the registration for the examination would begin on September 1, 2014, adding that it would be online and the bio-data of candidates would be captured as part of the registration process.

The examination would be conducted from February 16-20, 2015, and the time-table would be made available online when the examination is floated, it said.

Additionally, directions to candidates would be made available online at the time of floating of entries for the examination.

It said Continuous Assessment Scores would not be required for this examination; however, grading of candidates would be based solely on their final score as done for the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) private candidates.

The results of the examination should be expected in May, 2015.

It said a handbook containing the syllabuses, scheme of examination, specimen questions and rules and regulations for the examination, is being prepared in collaboration with the Ghana Education Service, and would be published soon for the guidance of prospective candidates.

It said candidates could download it from WAEC website when it is ready.