The Director in charge of Basic Education at the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mrs Victoria Quaye, has warned heads of junior secondary schools (JSS) to desist from registering students who are not yet in JSS Three for the upcoming Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). She said unqualified students who would find their way into any examination hall would have all their papers cancelled and even banned from taking any examination conducted by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC). Mrs Quaye, who made this known in an interview with the Junior Graphic, added that heads of JSS who would defy this regulation would be made to face the full rigours of the law. She stated that circulars had been sent out by the GES to all heads asking them to adhere to the directive in order to prevent the cancellation of candidates’ papers. Mrs Quaye explained that it had come to the notice of the GES that some heads of schools, especially the public schools, admitted students from private schools who were not in JSS Three to write the BECE with their candidates. "This is highly unlawful and against the examination rules and regulations of both the GES and WAEC. Such students do not have any continuous assessment which forms part of the requirement for all candidates who write the BECE," she explained. According to her, last year some students and schools had their entire results and papers cancelled because WAEC detected that they were unqualified. That meant that all their continuous assessment records were forged by the heads of the schools where they were registered. She appealed to parents not to rush their children into writing the BECE, especially when they had not gone through all the classes to be prepared enough for such examinations. "Some parents who have their children in private schools feel their children are very intelligent and they, therefore, want them to attempt the BECE. This is illegal and fraudulent and must not be encouraged," she warned. Mrs Quaye stated that every child must be allowed to go through all the levels of primary and JSS in order to have an in-depth knowledge of what was expected of him/her during the BECE and in senior secondary school (SSS). "Students who do not go through all these levels are bound to encounter problems in SSS. They may be repeated or even sacked for non-performance,” she added. Graphic