After months of uncertainty and apprehension arising out of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) kicks off for Ghanaian candidates today.

In all, 375,737 candidates from 976 schools will be writing the examination at 796 centres throughout the country.

Out of the figure, about 188,163 are females, while the remaining 187,573 are males.

The examination begins with the Visual Arts project, which will be done by 65,380 candidates in eight different areas.

A total of 750 candidates will do Basketry; 6,620 will do Ceramics, while 22,929 will do Graphic Design.

Some 29,983 candidates will do the practical work in Jewellery, while 9,826 will go in for Leatherworks, with 7,986, 7,484 and 6,805 candidates engaging in Picture Making, Sculpture and Textiles, respectively.

Commenting on the readiness of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), the Head of the National Office of WAEC, Mrs Wendy Enyonam Addy-Lamptey, said with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of examination personnel, including invigilators, had been scaled up due to the social distancing protocol, which had necessitated the use of additional classrooms.

“The number of examination personnel has been revised upward by 10 per cent to cater for the additional classrooms to be used by the candidates to meet the COVID-19 social distancing protocol,” she explained.

She said originally, 16,218 examination personnel, made up of supervisors, assistant supervisors, invigilators and security personnel, were to administer the examination, “but because of the COVID-19 protocols, the figure has been revised upwards by 10 per cent”.