This year’s West Africa Senior High School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) began throughout the country Monday, with 174,385 students sitting the examination. Of the number, 79,215, representing 45.47 percent are females, while 95,170, constituting 54.57 percent, are males. According to official figures, 510 public senior high schools are participating in the examination, which is expected to end in June 11, 2012. The Minister of Education, Mr. Lee Ocran, toured some examination centres in Accra to acquaint himself with the level of preparation, as well as encourage the candidates, whose first paper was oral English. His visit took him to the Accra High School, Accra Girls' SHS and Achimota School, during which he interacted with the candidates and wished them well. Accompanying the minister were the acting Deputy Director-General in charge of Administration at the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr Stephen Aidoo; the Director of Pre-tertiary Education, Ms Rabiana Azara, and the Director of Special Education, Mrs Rosemary Blay. The number of students participating in this year's examination has increased from last year's 147,227. Addressing the media, Mr Ocran, who expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the examination so far, assured the candidates of the government's commitment to provide the necessary facilities and assistance to ensure that they went through the examination successfully. He called for the support of parents and guardians to assist in the process by supporting their children or wards to pursue quality education. He said security personnel had been deployed to the various centres to ensure that candidates and invigilators did not face any challenges. He hinted that the ministry would table discussions with the Vice-Chancellors Ghana (VCG) to see if the current grading system could be amended to allow more students to enter tertiary institutions. Currently, the National Council for Tertiary Education's (NCTE) grading system does not permit students with grades D7 and E8 to be admitted to the Universities, since those grades are considered as fail. According to Mr Ocran, although many SHS leavers were denied access to tertiary education, the government could not be entirely blamed, as responsibility rested on the students themselves.