For the next one and a half months, final year students in the junior and Senior High Schools will be engaged in what will greatly affect their lives in the future.  While those in the basic level prepare feverishly to write their Basic Education Certificate Examination, their counterparts in the Senior High School are taking the West Africa Senior Secondary School Examination. 

The B.E.C.E. will be written from the April 21-25 and the WASSSCE will last till May 27th when the last paper will be written.  While candidates who have prepared for the examination will find the examination as a normal exercise, it is definitely going to be weeks of headache for lazy students. 

In an effort to pass, many candidates have, over the years, resorted to all forms of examination malpractices such as impersonation, carrying foreign material into the examination hall, leakage, collusion and mass cheating.  All these activities have dragged the image of the West African Examinations Council in the mud for a long time and it is about time serious measures were adopted to reverse the trend. 

Candidates have to be vigilant about people parading the schools claiming to possess leaked examination papers.  After duping their victims they vanish into thin air. 

Candidates should also be wary of the stiff punishment that awaits those who indulge in examination malpractices of any kind.  Teachers and school authorities who help students to cheat in order to score good grades and give their schools a good name should desist from the act because cheating is criminal. 

The hallmark of a good school is how well its products perform in higher institution of learning and not only the results of their final exams.  Besides, helping students in external examinations is a disincentive to hard work since those behind will expect such assistance.  It is also a way of breeding corrupt and irresponsible citizens, who will eventually grow to become the bane of national development.   

It is against this background that teachers and school authorities should encourage independent work and allow the actual performance of students to reflect in their final results.  This will serve as a deterrent to students to reflect in their final results.  This will serve as a deterrent to students involved in such negative practices in schools.  In the words of Albert Einstein, it is better to be a man of value than to be a man of success. 

Ghana has reached the wilderness of its development agenda where men of integrity and value are needed to lead the country to the Promised Land.  The basic and second cycle educational institutions have a crucial role to play in shaping the future leaders and this should not be undermined by examination malpractices. 

All well-meaning Ghanaians should therefore collaborate with the West African Examinations Council to ensure an incident-free BECE and WASSSCE.  The candidates are reminded that success is the reward for all disciplined and studious students.  Good Luck to all Junior and Senior High Students who are writing their final examinations.

WRITTEN BY: Manasseh Azure Awuni (Student)  Ghana Institute Of Journalism