Education Minister, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh has extended goodwill to candidates in this year's Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) across the country.

This comes at a time when 531,674 students in the final year of Junior High Schools (JHS) are set to take examinations to progress into the second-cycle level.

The students will be sitting for the papers from Monday, September 14 to 18 following months of schools' closure as part of restrictions to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

On the back of the easing of Covid-19 restrictions, the Ghana Education Service revised the examination date which was usually conducted in June each year.

But in a statement signed by his Press Secretary Rodney Nkrumah-Boateng, the Education Minister expressed optimism that the process will be successful.

"He [Education Minister] is confident that they have worked hard with the support of their teachers, especially following their recall to school after
the outbreak of Covid-19 forced the closure of our schools in March this year."

He also encouraged the candidates to eschew any form of malpractices that may the beauty of the annual exercise.

The September 13 statement further added that; "Thanks to President Akufo-Addo's vision of a Free Senior High School policy, every candidate who is successful at the BECE and qualifies to be placed in any of our public
senior high schools is assured of admission, irrespective of their family's financial circumstances."