The Ghana Education Service (GES) has asked parents and candidates who have received their Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) results to be patient with the service as it begins the process to start the placement of qualified candidates into senior high schools and technical institutes. It said so far it had completed part of the technical aspect of the placement exercise with the input of the data of the candidates. The data include the names and index numbers of the candidates. A Deputy Director General of the GES, Mr Stephen Adu, who made this known to the Daily Graphic, noted that the service was still awaiting the 2012 BECE results from the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) to effect the placement of qualified candidates into senior high schools. He said WAEC was withholding the results of 5,000 candidates and once the council had not finished with its investigation into those withheld results, there was no way the service could go ahead with the placement. “We are waiting for WAEC to finish with its investigations into the results it is withholding. After that when they hand over the results, we will input them for the placement into senior high and technical institutes,” he said. The GES, Mr Adu said, was ready for this year’s exercise with the completion of the technical aspects of the work. Two weeks ago WAEC released provisional results of the 2012 BECE and indicated that the results of 5,000 candidates were being held pending investigations. A total of 376,859 candidates from 11,164 public and private junior high schools across the country wrote this year's BECE. The total candidates represented a 4,033 increase over last year's figure of 372,826 who came from 10,500 schools. In all, 203,394 males and 173,465 females sat for the one-week examination, which would produce the second batch of third-year students for senior high school since the change of government in 2009. The Ashanti Region had the highest number of candidates for the examination. The region had a total of 77,222 candidates comprising 36,157 females and 41,065 males. Following the Ashanti Region was the Greater Accra Region with 66,964 candidates made up of 32,673 males and 34,291 females. In third position was the Central Region with 39,216 candidates being the total of 21,286 males and 17,930 females. The Western Region followed with 38,646 candidates of which 21,277 were males and 17,369 being females. The Eastern Region was fifth with 38,068 candidates, comprising 20,976 males and 17,092 females. A total of 34,945 candidates wrote the BECE in the Brong Ahafo Region. The breakdown was 19,537 males and 15,408 females. The Northern, Volta, Upper East and Upper West Regions followed in that order; with the Northern Region recording 28,152 candidates (16,887 males and 11,265 females), Volta Region recording 27,506 candidates (15,675 males and 11,834 females), and Upper East Region recording 16, 080 candidates (8,543 males and 7,537 females). The Upper West Region had 10,050 candidates, comprising 4,582 males and 5,475 females. The government paid GH¢19.95 as subsidy per candidate. The amount represents 70 per cent of the approved BECE registration fee of GH¢28.50.