This year's Basic Education Certificate Examination(BECE) has taken off smoothly in the Ablekuma North Municipality.
A total of 2,658 candidates are sitting for the examination in 12 centres with candidates from 80 schools comprising 13 public schools and sixty -seven private ones.
As an annual ritual, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Hon. Kofi Ofori and assembly officials embarked on a monitoring exercise to selected schools to offer them moral support and encouragement.
The three schools visited included Saleria Cluster A&B Basic School, St. Stephen Basic School and Darkuman North Presby Basic School.
Accompanying the MCE were the Municipal Education Director, Mr Ebenezer Perry Ofori, the Member of Parliament(MP) for Ablekuma North, Hon. Sheila Bartels, the Municipal Coordinating Director, Mrs Vera Akuffo-Mante, Government Appointee, Mrs Joyce Acheampong and the Municipal Information Officer, Madam Mercy Asante.
Interacting with the candidates,Mr. Ofori advised the candidates to have confidence in themselves and the assurance that what they have learnt over the period would come in handy.
He said once they excel at the examinations, they could take full advantage of the Free Senior High School (SHS), adding that they have no cause to worry over financial impediment with that endeavor.
Mr. Ofori said he has ample faith in the ability of the candidates banking on the sound record of the municipality.
In an interview, he said he hoped the candidates would outperform their predecessors who acquitted themselves equally well.
On sustainable measures undertaken to improve the fortunes of education in the municipality, he said the assembly in a joint effort with the MP for the area were to supply two hundred bags of cement to specific schools in the municipality for infrastructure development of which one hundred have been supplied upfront by the MP.
Mr. Ofori said the assembly in collaboration with the MP would continue in their unwavering commitment to prioritize educational needs of the municipality towards desirable outcomes.
He urged parents to rest assured their children would come out with good grades to secure entry to the Free SHS which is no longer a parental burden.
The MP for the area, Hon. Bartels appreciated the committed effort of teachers at preparing the candidates over the years for the examination.
She commended the Municipal Education Directorate for the impactful programmes to improve the lot of teachers and pupils alike which would be helpful to the candidates.
She said her focus was to continue to offer the variety of support initiatives for the pupils once they pass out to attend Senior High School.
On efforts to put education on a sound footing in relation to modernity, she said coming from Information Technology background, she was embarking on a digital project for schools in the municipality starting with 'Smart Classrooms', to enable the children have early access to information technology.
A modern library with digital integration, she said was also being set up where children could access information globally anytime to promote learning activities.
On her part, Mr. Perry Ofori commended the effort of the assembly for being responsive to educational needs of the area in spite of resource constraints but prevailed on the assembly to go the extra mile to mitigate the few challenges that exists.
He urged all candidates to abide by the regulations to ensure an incident-free examination by the end of the week.
Two candidates interviewed appealed to the authorities to deal with candidates with human face as against last year.