In 2007, our worst  aggregate was 08

In 2008, our worst  aggregate was 06

In 2009, our worst aggregate was 08

And in 2010, our worst aggregate was 09.

In general, performance in most of the schools in Tema was not very encouraging. Thankfully to God, our students did their best. Below is the details of the 2010 B.E.C.E results

Total Number of Candidates Presented           17

School Placements into the various secondary schools has been encouraging. Visit mayflower.edu.gh/alumni to see which schools our graduands have made since 2006.

I would encourage all students who where not placed to exercise  patience. I am very sure that if the second placement is done by October 20th, you would be placed. If still you don’t like the secondary school you have been placed into, look for a private secondary school in your neigbourhood  to attend.

To ensure fairness in all subsequent placements, I would urge the Ghana Education Service and  W.A.E.C to establish a commission made up of a group of IT experts who would scrutinize the algorithm used for the placements to ensure it is really free and fair to all B.E.C.E candidates.

To those who made their first choice schools,  Ayekoo. And to those  who missed it narrowly and are crying bitterly, take heart,  all is not lost. Your ultimate goal is getting to the university. You can make it no matter the senior secondary school you attend. Just accept the school you have been posted to and never forget your ultimate target.

My hope is that the new company in charge of the placement will do everything within their means to correct all  mistakes before the final placements is released. I don’t think parents would take it lightly if their son is placed in Holy Child School for instance. We have passed that stage of mistake long time ago.

My greatest worry is not even about the placement but rather about the accommodation into the various senior secondary schools. Where are the first year students going to stay?  Will the army really put up tents for them to lodge in?

The four years Senior High School introduced by President Kuffuor has brought untold problems to the sitting government. Not only must they provide classrooms for the first year students, but they must also build new dormitories and expand dinning halls, unfortunately, not much  has been done.

Most schools are yet to complete their classrooms for the first years, rumour spreading in town is that some would go to school next year February. Some schools have registered their students for 2010  Nov-Dec W.A.S.S.C.E and they intend to send all their form threes’ student home in order to make room for the first years.

Since majority of the senior high schools are building their classrooms in a rush in order to ensure the first years re-open on time, the Minister of education must personally put system in place to monitor the activities of contractors putting up the school buildings in various secondary schools. We don’t want another tragedy of school building collapsing on students before government  starts scrutinizing  projects awarded to contractors.

To all graduands waiting to check which secondary school they have been placed into, I am really praying your heart desires would be met.

The difficulty  in getting aggregate six out of five subjects is now very obvious since there is no more Agricultural Science, R.M.E, Pre-Technical Skills and Pre-Vocational Skills to cover up for the English, Maths and Science.

The results I have seen so far suggest all is not very well in most schools. Candidates with aggregate lower than 10  should not worry much since it looks likely that they might just make their first choice school.

To check the results online however, graduands should first obtain scratch cards from the following w.a.e.c head offices. Scratch cards can also be obtained from post offices nationwide.

Graduands with scratch can follow the following steps to check their results online.

1.    Start a new browser eg (Internet Explorer, mozilla) and type  www.ghana.waecdirect.org in the    address bar

2.   Enter your B.E.C.E Index number (9 digits) eg 102228001

3.   Select the Examination type,   in your case ( B.E.C.E.)

4.   Select the examination year, in your case  ( 2009 )

5.  Enter  the card serial number found on the reverse side of your scratch card.

6.  Enter the PIN ( the 12 -digit number on the scratch card)

7.  Confirm your index number and examination year

8.  Click on submit and wait for the display in the pop up window

9.  Print your B.e.c.e. results

Note

Once the results is released, scratch cards become scarce. Graduands should get one on time.

You cannot give your scratch card to your friend to check his/her results after it has been used once.

You can only use your scratch card to check your result three times.

I am really wishing all  graduands all the best of luck.

Below is the final time table for the 2010 B.E.C.E

I am wishing all candidates all the best of luck.

Something seem very clear about the  2010 B.E.C.E. Students who cannot think in the examination room will not perform very well. Sample questions that were received from W.A.E.C  shows that a lot of thinking would be required by students who wants to excel. Below is  sample mathematics questions for 2010 B.E.C.E.

1.  How many subsets has the set P = ( –1, 0, 2)?

A.   8       B.     6        C.     4         D.   3

2.  A man spends 1/3 of his salary on his salary on his children’s education and 2/5 of the remainder on accommodation. What fraction of the salary is left?    A.   5/9    B.    1/8     C.  2/5    D.    3/5

3.   Evaluate a/b, if a = 1/2  and  b = 1/4.

A.  4            B.   3         C.     2         D.   1

4.  Nana Yaa receives 20% commission in her weekly sales. In a week if she receives GH800.00 as a commission, calculate her total sales for the week.     A.   GH1,200.00       B.   GH2,400.00          C.    GH3,200.00       D.     GH4,000.00

5.   A basket contains 15 oranges and 25 mangoes. What is the probability of selecting a mango from the basket?

A.  1/15              B.    1/25                C.     3/8            D.    5/8

6.   Multiply 0.0012  x  0.02 leaving the answer in standard form

A.  2.4 x  10^5      B.    2.4  x  10^4     C.   2.4  x  10^-4     D.   2.4  x  10^-5

7.    Write the bearing S40oE as a three figure bearing

A.   140o           B.    040o            C.   220o           D.   320o

8.   If vector b =    ( 2 )   and  2a – b = ( 6  ),  find the vector a

( 3  )                       ( 7 )

A.   4                 B.      4                  C.         -4               D.         8

5                          4                               5                            10

9.   What is the next term of the sequence    1,  2,  3, 5, 8  …….?

A.   10           B.      11             C.   12               D.   13

10.    The scale of a map is 1: 10000.  The distance between two points on the map is 4cm. What is the actual distance between the points?

A.   4m          B.    40m         C.    400m        D.         4000m

11. Evaluate A. 0.259 B. 2.590 C. 25, 900 D. 259,000

12. Express 1.25 as a mixed fraction in its lowest term A. B. C. D.

13. The total number of match sticks in 6 match boxes was 270. Find the total number of sticks in 20 similar boxes.
A. 710 B. 800 C. 810 D. 900

14. A car travels at an average speed of 45 km per hour. What distance does it cover in 12 hours.

A. 450km B. 480km C. 500km D. 450km

15. Calculate the simple interest on GH130,000.00 for 2 1/2years at 12% per annum. A. GH78,000.00 B. GH39,000.00 C. GH36,000.00 D. GH31,200.00

16. Express 2/5 as a percentage A. 20% B. 25% C. 40% D. 80%

17. Kwame gets a commission of 20% on bread sold. In one week, Kwame’s commission was GH45.000.00. How much bread did he sell during that week? A. GH205,000.00 B. GH220,000.00 C. GH225.000.00 D. GH235,000.00

18.   Write 83000 in standard form.

A. 8.3 x 10^-4 B. 8.3×10^-3 C. 8.3 x 10³ D. 8.3xl0⁴

Use the information to answer questions 19 and 20

The following are the marks obtained by pupils in a test: 2, 3, 5, 2, 3, 4, 2, 3, 5, 3.

19.   What is the mode? A. 2 B. 3 C. 4 D. 5

20.  Calculate the mean. A. 3.0 B. 3.2 C. 4.0 D. 4.2

SECTION  B

1a.     Of the 53 pupils of Kofikrom Junior High School, 36 take tea, 18 take coffee and 10 take neither tea nor coffee.

i.    Draw a Venn diagram to illustrate this information

ii.   Using your diagram, determine the number that takes both tea and coffee.

b.   Three church bells toll at intervals of 5, 12 and 15 minutes respectively. If they toll together at 12.00noon on a given day, when next will they toll together?

c.   Copy and complete the magic square below so that the sum along the rows, columns and diagonal are the same equal to 15

4
	5	7

2a        Find the area of the shaded portion

b. Simplify and leave your answer in standard form

c.  The ratio of the sheep to goats on a farm is 4: 7. If there are 1,428 sheep, find how many goats are on the farm.

3a

The table below shows the scores of some students in an examination

From the table, find:

i. How many students wrote the examination

ii. The modal score

iii. The number of students who scored 7 or more

iv. The mean score correct to one decimal place.

4a         Using a ruler and of compasses only, construct a triangle ABC and /AB/= 6cm, /AC/= 8cm and angle BAC= 30^o. Construct the bisector of angle ACB to meet the line AB at D.

i. Measure /AD/ and /BD/ ii. Write down the ratio /AD/ : /BD/

b. A rectangular water tank has length 80cm, width 40cm and height 50cm. Find,

i. Find the total surface area of the tank when closed

ii. The volume of the tank

iii. The height of the water in the tank, if the tank contains 80,000cm³ of water.

b.      Solve 3x – 9 12(x – 3) and Illustrate your answer on a number line

When the registration process started in November 2009, officials from W.A.E.C informed proprietors and headmasters of private schools in a meeting that five core subjects {Mathematics, English Language, Integrated Science, I.C.T and Social Studies } would be written and the optional subjects being (BD T, French and Ga). There was uproar during the meeting because of the I.C.T. Most private schools did not have adequate structures and facilities in place to adequately prepare their pupils. I wondered how the public schools would manage to train their pupils to be examinable in five months knowing that majority don’t even have light in their schools. There was total chaos.

Two weeks later after a lot of complaints from parents and teachers in the media about the introduction of I.C.T as a core subject, G.E.S hinted that I.C.T would be replaced by Religious and Moral Studies (RME), thinking that would calm down tempers, it made matter worse.

Sending conflicting signals about the examinable subjects in this year’s B.E.C.E is not the best. The 2010 B.EC.E. would commence on the 19th of April, 2010. Ghana Education Service must come out clear on what subjects the present crops of form three’s are writing. The I.C.T or R.M.E confusion must be sorted out early before things get out of hand.

G.E.S and W.A.E.C must ensure all policies regarding the Junior High School and Senior High School are made known early to all stakeholders to avoid such confusion in future. Presently, some heads of institution cannot tell convincingly whether the present crop of form ones would spend three years or four years in school, I would advise that in order not to be caught with their pants down like some private schools presently, they should prepare their students for three years.

DATE FIRST PAPER SECOND PAPER
19TH APRIL ENGLISH LANGUAGE / R.M.E/I.C.T
20TH APRIL INT. SCIENCE / SOCIAL STUDIES
21ST APRIL MATHEMATICS / BD&T
22ND APRIL FRENCH / GA

The management of the Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) are doing everything possible to eliminate all errors to ensure that candidates are placed into the right senior high schools according to merit. 

The raw scores of candidates who wrote the 2009 BECE have been sent to the CSSPS and from information received so far, candidates would know latest by the end of first week in September the school they have been placed into by texting their index number to some short codes which would be made known soon.

In general, the results of the 2009 BECE was not very encouraging as compared to the 2008 BECE results so candidates with aggregate 7 and 8 should not worry much since it is highly probable that they can get placed into their first choice senior high schools.

What we have to worry over however is the categorization of Senior High Schools and the high number of candidates writing the exams. Ministry of education would have to put systems in place to ensure that only qualified form three students write the next BECE. If over 500,000 students wrote the 2009 BECE, the big question is; would all this students get Senior High Schools to attend?

To the 2009 BECE candidates, I pray you get placed into your respective first choice senior high schools.

According to the Public Affairs Manager of WAEC, Mrs. Agnes Teye Cudjoe, the results are yet to be forwarded to the Ghana Education Service for it to be used in the Computerised School Selection and Placement System. However, the results is available online so graduands can get a WAEC scratch from post office nationwide to check their results online.

When compared to last year’s results, the number of candidates that had their results cancelled due to examination malpractices was lower.

Issues that would have to be looked at critically is the categorization of Senior High Schools. A lot of students might loose their first choice school if their scores is not very strong. Stakeholders would have to debate on this because this new method of placing students in my opinion is not the best.

Even though w.a.e.c. is yet to release the 2009 b.e.c.e results, anxious graduands all over the country cannot hide their disappointment to what seems to be a delay by w.a .e.c. officials in releasing the 2009 b.e.c.e. results.

To check the results online however, graduands should first obtain scratch cards from the following w.a.e.c head offices. Scratch cards can also be obtained from post offices nationwide.

OFFICE	LOCATION	TEL NO
Accra	Ghana National Office, Examination Loop (Behind Ridge Hospital)	233-021-685901- 4
Kumasi	WAEC Branch Office, Near Kumasi Technical Institute (KTI)	233-051-26064 / 34452 / 34454/34448
Sekondi	WAEC Branch, Office, Near Regional Administration, Sekondi	233-031-46334 / 46041
Cape Coast	WAEC Branch Office, Adisadel Estate	233-042-32878
Koforidua	WAEC Branch Office, Old Estate Road	233-081-20922 / 20923 / 20075 / 20921
Ho	WAEC Branch Office, Accra Road (Opposite SCC/Ghana Highways Authority Offices)	233-091-28254
Sunyani	WAEC Branch Office, (Behind Ghana Legion and District Assembly Offices)	233-061-27016 / 24462
Tamale	WAEC Branch Office, (Kalpohin Estates)	233-071-23092 / 23421
Bolgatanga	WAEC Branch Office, SOE Residential Area (Near Catering Rest House)	233-072-23232 / 24267
Wa	WAEC Branch Office, Regional Administration	233-0756-22278

Graduands with scratch can follow the following steps to check their results online.

1.    Start a new browser eg (Internet Explorer, mozilla) and type  www.ghana.waecdirect.org in the           address bar

2.   Enter your B.E.C.E Index number (9 digits) eg 102228001

3.   Select the Examination type,   in your case ( B.E.C.E.)

4.   Select the examination year, in your case  ( 2009 )

5.  Enter  the card serial number found on the reverse side of your scratch card.

6.  Enter the PIN ( the 12 -digit number on the scratch card)

7.  Confirm your index number and examination year

8.  Click on submit and wait for the display in the pop up window

9.  Print your B.e.c.e. results

Note

Once the results is released, scratch cards become scarce. Graduands should get one on time.

You cannot give your scratch card to your friend to check his/her results after it has been used once.

You can only use your scratch card to check your result three times.

I am really wishing all 2009 graduands all the best of luck.