Tamale, April 23, GNA- The Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) took off smoothly in most of the examination centres in the Tamale Metropolis.

The GNA visited two examination centres at the Tamale Secondary School (Tamasco) where the candidates were seen writing the Religious and Moral Education paper, which was the second of the day, the first paper being English Language.

At Examination Centre "A" at Tamasco, Mr. Salifu Ibn Abudu, the supervisor, said out of the 361 candidates who registered for the examination 212 were boys and 148 girls.

One candidate was absent as at the time the candidates were writing the first two papers.

At Examination Centre "B", out of the 435 candidates, five were absent.

Mr. Paul Asene, the supervisor at the centre, said one of the girl candidates was reported to be pregnant while another was said to have gone to a different school.

Mr. Asene described the other absentees as "truants". At the Ghana Secondary School (Ghanasco), there were fears that the examination might not take place there because a severe rainstorm that hit the Tamale Metropolis on Saturday had ripped off the roofs of some of the classrooms for the examination.

The examination however took off without a hitch, as alternative classrooms had been readied for the candidates. There were 522 candidates at the two examination centres at Ghanasco, with six candidates absent; no reason was given for their absence.

The Supervisors at all the examination centres said all the examination material were intact, invigilation was going on smoothly and the candidates were comporting themselves and complying with all the examination rules and regulations.