What is the structure of the 2024 BECE? How many subjects are the candidates going to write in 2024?, and what are the questions going to be like? These are some of the many questions stakeholders are asking
With the introduction of the 2019 curriculum, the structure of the 2024 BECE is expected to be different from what it has been since 1990, when the old curriculum was introduced.
At the time of this publication, the Ghana Education Service (GES), the West African Examination Council (WAEC), and the Ministry of Education (MoE) have not made any public pronouncements regarding what the structure of the 2024 BECE will be.
The subjects likely to be administered during the 2024 BECE
The new BECE examination, based on the 2019 curriculum, is expected to cover ten subjects.
The JHS subjects for BECE to be held in 2024:
- English Language
- Mathematics
- Integrated Science
- Social Studies
- Religious and Moral Education
- Ghanaian Language
- French or Arabic
- Career Technology
- Computing
- Creative Arts and Design
It will be prudent on the part of the GES and the MoE to start working on this and keep the general public updated. Schools, teachers, parents, and students need to be informed of what the 2024 BECE examination will be like so that schools and teachers can tailor the preparation of candidates for the examination.
Schools have already started preparing their would-be candidates for the 2024 examinations through mock examinations without any forward-looking updates from policymakers and implementors.
We do not need to wait a few months for the BECE before they start throwing unplanned and untested systems and modalities.
If the structure of the 2024 BECE changes, the GES, MoE, and WAEC will do us all a lot of good by piloting the new system as mock examinations for selected government schools to test the new system.
This way, we are sure to identify some of the challenges along the way and fine-tune the new structure ahead of the 2024 BECE. No one wants to have a system where the education and academic success of the students depend on it, so introducing a new structure without testing it beforehand would present challenges for candidates. A similar challenge occurred when the National Standardised Test was first implemented.
Currently, students who were introduced to the new curriculum are in JHS3 and will be the first batch of candidates to be assessed using the 2019 curriculum, which was introduced without textbooks for over three years in public schools.
What is the structure of the 2024 BECE? and the questions arising
If the GES, WAEC, and MoE believe in effectiveness, efficiency, and flawless systems and policies for the betterment of education and assessment, we should be having conversations about the structure of the 2024 BECE by now.
- Is it going to follow the same structure as the previous BECE?
- Is it going to be on the new curriculum?
- How different will the question structure be compared to the old curriculum’s BECE?
- Can we have samples of such question structures to inform the preparation of candidates for the examination?
- Are the questions going to be about the application of knowledge or the usual chew, pour, pass, and forget approach?
- Are the candidates going to write about all 10 subjects they are currently learning? or are some going to be merged?
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These are matters of concern that I think all stakeholders, including teachers (especially private school teachers), should be discussing in order to adequately prepare the learners for the upcoming BECE.
Most stakeholders are confused as it stands now; you hear different things from different sources.
What is the structure of the 2024 BECE? Find the answers here
