It is not unknown that sitting for an examination requires stoicism to cover up anxiety and fear especially to first timers. Even the very learned amongst us cringe at the thought of sitting an exam – unless of course the one is a catatonic zombie or emotionless. Let me not border you with too much about what it entails to prepare and sit for an exam.

To those of us who are abreast of the Basic Education Syllabus, and by extension, the nature of the questions that are set for candidates you will agree that 5 days (to be precise, sitting for two papers a day) is woefully inadequate for an average BECE candidate to perform well.

It is easy for some of us to say that,” I also wrote the BECE in five days and passed, so what difference does it make?” let me explain in a gist.

First of all, need I remind us that per the name Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) what it means is that, questions are tailored from the basic school syllabus which stem from basic school one to JHS (basic school 1 to 9) Presently, if you took a BECE question paper, say, integrated science and compare the content to the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) core science, you were likely to see striking similarities in the content and format of the questions. More so, but for summary writing, I would have said the same for English language.

Even that, excluding the early years (1990 - 1999), the English language paper has now taken a more detailed format, thereby requiring a lot from candidates.

It now includes literature (more recently The Cockcrow is a setbook from which questions will be set. It contains 10 proses, 9 poems and a drama), written comprehension test (previously used to be objective test) etc. just to mention a few.

All these changes have not been acknowledged in the Chief Examiner’s yearly reports (which are often published late, a couple years after the exams). With this, why shouldn’t the BECE candidates be given quasi-duration as their seniors in the Senior High School since it appears they both sit for an exam almost similar in format? Why should they be made to sit two papers a day and nine in five days? These are teenagers who are for the first time sitting for an external examination.

Again, if you read the Chief Examiner’s yearly report which often spells out why most candidates fail the bece, you will notice that all the players involved in the examination process are blamed except the examining body.

I appreciate the drudgery involved in organizing an examination nationwide; however, once you have taken up the challenge, it means you are equally ready to put in your all. Therefore, if it is suggested that extending the duration would create financial burden on the examining body, why shouldn’t the organization find creative ways of raising funds to cater for such expenses other than the candidates suffering for it?

In the just recent past BECE (2016), the West Africa Examination Council made changes to the exam timetable. For instance, French which was originally written on the last day (Fridays) was moved to the third (Wednesday). Several other reshuffles were made, for what reason, I do know. However, if these changes are meant to ease pressure on the candidates, then someone must be flogging a dead horse.

The concern of duration has to be tackled because that is the bane of the challenge of these young ones.

West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) is a very reputable institution and needs to live beyond certain reproach.

I rest my case.