Advanced business certificate examination website

The West African Examinations Council wishes to inform its numerous publics that the Council has opened its portal for the registration of candidates for BECE for School and Private candidates, WASSCE for School candidates and the G/ABCE, 2024.

BECE for School & Private Candidates, 2024

The portal was opened for the registration of candidates on Monday, 11 th March, 2024 and will be closed on Friday, 19 th April, 2024. The BECE for School and Private Candidates, 2024 will be administered from Monday, 8 th to Friday, 12 th July, 2024. All relevant stakeholders are urged to adhere to these timelines as the Council may not be able to accommodate late entries due to test security reasons. The Council held briefing sessions for all stakeholders who will be involved in the registration of candidates from Tuesday, 20 th to Friday, 23 rd February, 2024.

In view of the introduction of the common core curriculum, School Candidates for BECE will be examined differently from the Private Candidates. While School candidates will be examined based on the common core curriculum, the Private candidates will be examined on the old syllabus. All private candidates are therefore to note and be careful when selecting their subjects.

The fee payable per candidate for the BECE is GH₵214.01.

The examination, which will be a Ghana only version of the WASSCE, will be conducted from Monday, 5 th August to Friday, 27 th September, 2024. The Council wishes to stress that despite the difference in the period for the conduct of the examination, the standard of the examination remains unchanged. Question papers are compiled by officers across the member countries. At the end of the examination, International Preliminary Coordination Meetings are held to finalize draft marking schemes. Further, right after the marking exercise, the International Awards Committee meets to determine the grade boundaries for all subjects. These processes ensure that the examination written by Ghana only, still maintains its International status.

The final timetable for the examination will be made available to all schools and will be on the WAEC website as well. Candidates are advised to contact their schools or visit the WAEC website for the accurate timetable. Candidates should refrain from downloading timetables from unverifiable websites.

As the name implies, the WASSCE for School Candidates and BECE for School Candidates are available to students in the third/final year of regular Senior and Junior High School only. It is therefore against the rules and regulations of the examination for schools to engage in the following activities:

Register students who have not been enrolled in senior/junior high school from their first year and progressed through to the third year and do not have the required continuous assessment records. The grading for the school examinations is 70% external examination score and 30% continuous assessment score. If for some reason some students are transferred from one school to another, they should have evidence of the necessary continuous assessment/cumulative records;
Register students who are not in the final year or are not bona fide students of the school in question. Reports reaching us indicate that students from some Public Schools are enticed with the assurance of obtaining excellent grades and are therefore moving to some of the Private Schools to register for the examination;
Register students who have previously written the WASSCE (SC) but need better grades in one or more subjects and who join some public/accredited private schools in form three for examination purposes only. Such students are advised to register for the WASSCE for Private Candidates which has been specifically designed for them and offers them the opportunity to register for the number of subjects they wish to take.
Solicit for students by advertising the WASSCE for School Candidates in any form e.g. in the print, electronic or social media. The Council wishes to caution parents and the general public against registering for the examination with “banner schools”, many of whom lack any of the requisite facilities to run as regular schools. They are set up for the sole purpose of registering candidates for the examination. The schools put out phone numbers on the banners and request prospective candidates to meet them at various locations for registration for the examination at very exorbitant fees.

We wish to inform our publics that the approved WAEC registration fee for entry in 7 to 9 subjects is GH¢465.00. This figure is exclusive of the fees for practical or oral tests which range between GH¢14.50 and GH¢19.50 per test.

School authorities should note that sanctions for the registration of non-school/unqualified candidate(s) for school examinations and the fabrication and/or falsification of continuous assessment scores for the candidates are:

De-recognition of the affected school for not less than 1 year;
Report made to the Ministry of Education or the appropriate WAEC Board for disciplinary action against the person(s) responsible;
Withholding of the entire results of the non-school/unqualified candidate, pending the outcome of investigation by the appropriate Committee of the Council.

Registration Process for the 2024 Examinations

The Council has held briefing sessions nationwide for authorities of all schools who are expected to present candidates for the examinations. During the briefing sessions, it was emphasised that school authorities should take note of the following during the registration process:

Correct spelling and arrangement of names in the right order i.e. Surname, First Name and Other Names; e.g. SARPONG MICHAEL KOFI
Confirmation of Date of Birth by candidates before finalisation of the registration process;
Proper capturing of candidates’ photographs showing candidate’s face and both ears without sunglasses or spectacles;
Registration of candidates for the right subjects.

It is important for all candidates to ensure that their bio data is captured accurately before appending their signatures certifying the correctness of their entries on the statement forms. School authorities should ensure that they register candidates for the correct Ghanaian Language as well as other options available to them as no amendment of date of birth, re-arrangement/addition or subtraction of names will be entertained after the release of final results and printing of certificates. Once again, Heads of School are being cautioned against the registration of unqualified candidates which could lead to the nullification of a candidate’s results.

General/Advanced Business Certificate Examination (G/ABCE) 2024

The General and Advanced Business Certificate Examinations will be conducted from Friday, 2 nd August to Monday, 2 nd September 2024. The registration portal for this examination was opened on Tuesday 5 th March, 2024 and will be closed on Friday 19 th April, 2024.

The registration procedure for this examination will involve capturing of biodata and uploading of registration data online for all school and private candidates.

Upon submission of entries online, candidates are expected to print an invoice and proceed to a designated bank to make payment. The designated banks are listed in the manual for registration available on the WAEC website.

The examination is open to both private individuals and students in approved institutions.

The General Business certificate examination is equivalent to the WASSCE, while the Advanced Business certificate is equivalent to a Diploma certificate issued by any of the accredited universities in Ghana. Candidates who hold these certificates are eligible for entry into any university of their choice.

The WASSCE for Private Candidates will be conducted from Friday, 25 th October, to Wednesday, 18 th December, 2024. The registration portal will be open from Tuesday, 2 nd April to Friday, 30 th August, 2024. Fees payable for this examination depends on the number of subjects a candidate registers to write.

This examination is available to students in remedial schools, candidates who may want to better their grades after writing the WASSCE for school candidates or workers who may need a pass in one subject or another for personal development. Further information on this examination is available on the WAEC website.

Provision for Candidates with Special Educational Needs

The Council has made reasonable adjustments to make its examinations accessible to candidates with special educational needs. Heads of school and other relevant authorities should ensure that requests for access arrangements for special needs candidates with accompanying medical reports are forwarded to the Council within the registration period. Adherence to timelines for registration is very essential as the Council will have to make test accommodation arrangements.

As part of measures to ensure test security, the Council has carried out inspection of schools that have requested for accreditation to enable them present candidates for the examination. A number of these schools have received accreditation and would thus be eligible to present candidates for the WASSCE for School candidates, 2024. We wish to caution them to operate within the rules governing the registration of candidates and the conduct of the examination. The Council would not hesitate to take disciplinary action against any of these institutions should they breach any of the rules.

The Council wishes to remind all stakeholders of the revised Rules and Regulations for dealing with cases of irregularity in the Council’s examinations which have been in operation since 2023. The revision includes new rules on:

Having inscriptions on any part of the body or clothing
Posting Live Questions on the Internet
Refusal to grant timely access into the school premises
Misconduct of examination officials
Multiple registration of candidates

The revised rules are available on the Council’s website and Heads of school are urged to sensitise their candidates on them. Wide-scale sensitisation on these rules is ongoing to create the needed awareness.

The Council calls on all and sundry especially stakeholders to ensure that the registration process goes on smoothly. In addition they should register only eligible candidates for all the examinations, as this is a key factor in the successful conduct of the examinations and timely release of results.