The Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr John Alexander Ackon has told final year pupils who are sitting for the Basic Education Certificate Examination, (BECE) to shape their future lives by getting good grades in the exams.
According to him, pupils could get better Senior High Schools to attend in future by the express performance they put up in the ongoing examination.
Addressing about 500 pupils drawn from about Nine (9) schools in the Kumasi Metropolis at the Saint Louis Senior High School, a West African Examinations Council, (WAEC) center, the Regional Minister stressed pupils stood the chance of shaping a better future for themselves in the results they got in the ongoing exams.
This year, the Ashanti Region has put up a total of 91,349 pupils for the BECE exams and out of this number, 46,931 are males with female pupils numbering about 41,418.
Interestingly, this year’s figure is 3,543 higher than the number recorded for the entire region last year where the region presented a 
total of 87,815 candidates for the BECE Exams.
BURDEN:
Mr Ackon noted pupils could by their output in this year’s exams help to lessen the burden on their parents in searching for Senior High Schools,(SHS) for them if they got good passes in the subjects they offered at school.
He recalled how parents roamed various SHS to seek admission for their wards who because of bad grades could not be assigned to particular schools they chose.
”Your good performances in this exams will help to prevent your parents from stressing themselves to look for schools for you”, the Minister noted.
He said, ‘write with confidence and so much belief in yourself so as to enable you avoid the hustle of going to beg for admission in SHS after your exams”.
EDUCATION DIRECTOR:
In her usual succinct remarks at various centers across the region in the company of the Regional Minister, Mrs Mary Owusu Achiaw, the Ashanti Regional Director of Education encouraged final year pupils to be calm and write what they had been taught in school.
According to her, the exams contained nothing apart from what pertained in their syllables, nothing all questions in the exams were those which had been taught them by their teachers.
She entreated them not to cheat on others, adding they should abide by the regulations governing the conduct of the exams.
Furthermore, Mrs Owusu Achiaw urged the pupils to obey instructions from the invigilators so as to ensure a smooth process.
