Parents must pay 2025 BECE and WASSCE exam fees not governt. This is the bitter truth many parents whose wards attend public schools need to know if we are to help WAEC and government to reset Ghana’s education sector and bring some efficiency back into the work of WAEC.
In the last seven years WAEC has been a pale shadow of itself as a result of the government’s decision to pay the examination cost of students who sit the BECE and WASSCE from public schools. This move, all in the name of Free SHS and attempts to score cheap political points by the then-Akufo Addo-led government, has created more problems for WAEC than ever anticipated.
Since the introduction of the free WASSCE and BECE exams for public school candidates, WAEC has had very poor financial resource mobilisation and availability of resources as and when they need it. The council has moved from being financially resourced to a malnourished institution that has to often cry in the public space for the government to release funds for the conduct of examination.
In recent times, WAEC has failed to release WASSCE and BECE results in its usual record time of between 45 and 60 days as it was in the past.
A careful look at the current practice where the government pays what it owes WAEC in a piecemeal fashion and only after WAEC has threatened to delay results due to the lack of funds must stop.
Parents whose wards are in public schools must be ready to take care of the BECE and WASSCE examination fees. If the government is paying for their tuition fees over three years, parents must be able to take care of the examination fee burden fully. At best, the government must subsidise the fees for both public and private candidates and not only public school candidates. This will create a fair exam fee-paying regime.
If parents are allowed to pay for their wards 2025 BECE and WASSCE exam fees, for instance, it will go a long way to relieve the government of the exam fees burden and at the same time help WAEC function efficiently.
This means that WAEC will be receiving registration fees from all candidates and schools irrespective of whether the candidate is registered by a private or public school for the examination.
READ: GES cautions against charging unauthorized 2025 BECE registration fees
WAEC will overcome the challenge of not having its funds as and when needed to prepare for the examinations and facilitate post-exam processes, including marking and release of results.
It will help WAEC plan more efficiently and work within its timeframes, which will improve their work and further help in the timely release of results. In 2024 for instance, WAEC was not able to release the WASSCE results for candidates all because the government was not forthcoming with funds it owed WAEC.
Parents must be ready to take up their responsibilities and thus at least pay for the 2025 BECE and WASSCE exam fees if they want the examination to be freed from WAEC’s financing difficulties created by government policies such as the take-up of the exam fees for public school candidates.
WAEC has never complained for financial challenged when it comes to Private WASSCE or NOVDEC examinations becuase parents pay the full cost. This same practice must be reintroduced for the school candidates examinations for both public and private schools at the Junior High School and Senior High School levels.
There is just too much freebies in the education system and it is time parents at least take responsibility for their wards BECE and WASSCE exam fees.