Out of 806 candidates who registered in the Yendi District for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) 792 are writing their papers at Yendi Secondary School and Dagbon State Secondary Technical School, Yendi. The candidates are made up of 577 boys and 215 girls from 16 junior secondary schools. Out of the 14 not present, three are writing the exams in Tamale.

The Yendi District Director of Education, Mr Mohammed Imoro, made this known when the Minister for Primary, Secondary and Girl Child Education, Miss Christine Churcher, visited the examination centres. Miss Churcher brought the candidates a message of good will from President John Agyekum Kufuor and wished them success.

Some of the candidates she interacted with at the centres said the BECE exams for this year were ''manageable, neither cheap nor difficult". One of the candidates from Nakpachie E.P. JSS, Master Aminu Arafat told the Minister that when needy but brilliant children pass BECE exams they find it difficult to enter SSS due to financial problems. Master Arafat appealed to the government to devise a mechanism to assist them to further their education to also become "big men" in future.