The West African Examination Council (WAEC) has released the 2023 BECE Chief Examiner’s report. Checks on the WAEC portal by the Ghana Education News portal confirmed the release.
The prior to the release of the 2023 BECE Chief Examiner’s Report, the most recent report was that of 2022.
While the report relates to the old curriculum, the content remains very relevant and will be crucial for schools and teachers in preparing candidates for the 2025 examination.
Let us delve into the general summaries of the report.
2023 BECE Chief Examiner’s Report: SUMMARY OF CANDIDATES’ WEAKNESSES
The following weaknesses of candidates were identified by the Chief Examiners of the various languages:
(a) Poor use of language
The Chief Examiners for French, English Language, Fante, Ga, Dagbani, Gonja and Dagaare observed faulty constructions and spelling errors in the responses of some candidates. Also, the Chief Examiners for Ewe and Dangme observed that the use of the spoken form of the language instead of the standard form was common in the candidates’ scripts.
They further noted with concern that some candidates misused personal pronouns in the various languages.
(b) Poor Stock of Vocabulary
The Chief Examiners for French, Dagbani, Gonja and Dagaare observed that candidates’ stock of vocabulary was limited. As such, a lot of English words were found in their essays. This made it very difficult to understand some of the sentences they constructed.
(c) Poor Skills in Answering Comprehension Questions
It was noted by the Chief Examiners for English Language, Gonja, Ewe, Ga, Dagbani and Dagaare that some candidates copied portions of the comprehension passages, which were irrelevant, as answers to some questions.
(d) Poor Usage of Punctuation Marks
The Chief Examiners for Akuapem Twi, Gonja, Fante, Dagbani, Dagaare and Ewe indicated that some candidates failed to use punctuation marks appropriately. They used commas where they were expected to use full stops while some used capital letters after commas.
4. SUGGESTED REMEDIES
The following remedies were recommended to address the weaknesses identified:
(a) Teachers should endeavour to teach all aspects of the syllabi, conduct frequent word drills and other exercises in grammar.
(b) Candidates should be urged to read supplementary materials to improve their vocabulary.
(c) Candidates should cultivate the habit of answering past questions on comprehension passages. They should also read the Chief Examiners
Report so as to learn how to answer questions appropriately.
(d) Candidates should be taken through correct organization of answers and be guided on the use of appropriate punctuation marks.
B. HUMANITIES
1. PERFORMANCE OF THE CANDIDATES
The Chief Examiners for Religious and Moral Education and Social Studies noted that the performance of candidates varied. In Religious and Moral Education, the candidates’ performance was satisfactory, and in Social Studies, the
performance was good.
2023 BECE Chief Examiner’s Report : SOCIAL STUDIES SUMMARY
2. SUMMARY OF CANDIDATES’ STRENGTHS
The Chief Examiner noted that some of the candidates were able to demonstrate understanding in the following areas of the syllabus:
(a) function of rocks;
(b) methods of preserving forest vegetation;
(c) methods of reducing the pollution of water bodies in Ghana.
3. SUMMARY OF CANDIDATES’ WEAKNESSES
The Chief Examiner reported that some candidates had challenges in answering questions from the following topics:
(a) effects of migration of the youth from their sources of origin;
(b) maintaining law and order in schools;
(c) classification of human resource;
(d) calculation of time, using lines of longitude.
4. SUGGESTED REMEDIES
The Chief Examiner suggested that candidates must be given further assistance to understand the following topics in the syllabus:
(a) Effects of migration of the youth from their sources of origin;
(b) Maintaining law and order in the schools;
(c) Classification of human resource;
(d) Calculating time using lines of longitude.
2023 BECE Chief Examiner’s Report: RELIGIOUS AND MORAL EDUCATION SUMMARY
1. PERFORMANCE OF CANDIDATES
2. SUMMARY OF CANDIDATES’ STRENGTHS
The Chief Examiner noted that most of the candidates showed an understanding in the following areas of the syllabus:
(i) Islamic marriages; how they are contracted and ways of sustaining them;
(ii) Causes and prevention of physical death in the society;
(iii) Acceptable ways of saving money.
3. SUMMARY OF CANDIDATES’ WEAKNESSES
According to the Chief Examiner, most candidates could not show an understanding of the following topics in the syllabus:
(a) Moral teachings in West African Traditional Religion,
(b) The Concepts of Cleanliness and Holiness in Islam,
(c) Comparative studies of the major religions in Ghana.
READ: Download Latest BECE Chief Examiner’s Report for 2025 Candidates
4. SUGGESTED REMEDIES
The Chief Examiner suggested that teachers should give further attention to the following areas of the syllabus:
(a) Moral teachings in West African Traditional Religion;
(b) Concepts of cleanliness and holiness in Islam;
(c) Basic comparative studies on the major religions in Ghana.
C. INTEGRATED SCIENCE
1. PERFORMANCE OF CANDIDATES
The performance of the candidates was satisfactory, with a substantial number of candidates performing above average.
2. SUMMARY OF CANDIDATES’ STRENGTHS
Candidates were able to:
(i) define aerobic respiration in terms of biochemical reactions;
(ii) identify farm tools correctly;
(iii) provide precise and accurate responses on physical properties of soil;
(iv) identify accurately areas of technology used for the benefit of humans;
(v) identify the major causes of teenage pregnancy;
(vi) state the importance of mulching on the soil;
(vii) state practices that destroy water bodies;
(viii) provide methods of conservation of water bodies.
3. SUMMARY OF CANDIDATES’ WEAKNESSES
Some candidates produced avoidable errors in some aspects of their responses and some are listed below:
(i) identification of electronic symbols;
(ii) explanation of neutralization reaction;
(iii) writing and balancing chemical equations;
(iv) food web diagrams were drawn without proper indication of energy flow;
(v) fundamental units and physical quantities;
(vi) wrongly listing HIV/AIDS as a common infectious disease that affects human
reproductive systems;
(vii) differentiation between aerobic and anaerobic respiration;
(viii) difficulty in explaining the term Milky Way as well as failure to establish the
relationship between stars and galaxies;
(xi) effects of soil erosion on the growth of plants;
(xii) failure to infer and interpret laboratory results from written observations.
SUGGESTED REMEDIES
The Chief Examiner suggested that candidates must be given further assistance to be able to:
(i) spell scientific terms accurately;
(ii) understand basic electronic concept and identify electronic symbols;
(iii) provide appropriate formulae or expression and leave answers in required units
of measurements if any;
(iv) write chemical symbols, equations and balancing of these equations.
D. 2023 BECE Chief Examiner’s Report : MATHEMATICS SUMMARY
1. PERFORMANCE OF CANDIDATES
The Chief Examiner stated that candidates’ performance declined as compared with
that of the previous year.
2. SUMMARY OF CANDIDATES’ STRENGTHS
Candidates showed strengths in the following areas:
(a) solving problems on sets;
(b) simplifying fractions;
(c) solving problems on powers of numbers;
(d) solving problems on rigid motion.
3. SUMMARY OF CANDIDATES’ WEAKNESSES
Candidates’ weaknesses were observed in the following areas:
(a) solving problems related to distance and time;
(b) translating word problems into mathematical statements;
(c) drawing a pie chart;
(d) factorizing algebraic expression.
4. SUGGESTED REMEDIES
The Chief Examiner suggested that candidates should be:
(a) given adequate tuition and exercises to address the weaknesses.
(b) encouraged to read carefully and understand the demands
of the questions before answering.
E. INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY
1. PERFORMANCE OF CANDIDATES’
The Chief Examiner reported that there was greater improvement in candidates’ performance compared to those of the previous years.
2. SUMMARY OF CANDIDATES’ STRENGTHS
The Chief Examiner listed some of the candidates’ strengths as follows:
(a) appreciable knowledge of the print dialogue box and functions of some of the commands on the dialogue box for Question 1;
(b) satisfactory response to Question 5 which was on Microsoft Excel data types;
(c) demonstrate a deeper understanding of the content of the questions;
(d) appropriate use of ICT terms in their responses;
(e) adherence to the general and specific instructions outlined in the paper.
3. SUMMARY OF CANDIDATES’ WEAKNESSES
The Chief Examiner observed that some of the candidates:
(a) could not differentiate between current page and selection as demanded in
question 1;
(b) wrote most of the ICT terms wrongly even though some were provided in the
preamble to the question;
(c) failed to adhere to rubrics.
4. SUGGESTED REMEDIES
The Chief Examiner suggested the following to help address the weaknesses identified:
(1) there should be adequate practical activities to improve or enhance proficiency.
(2) ICT teachers should develop spelling drills to improve the poor spelling of ICT terminologies;
(3) teachers should stress the need to adhere to rubrics.