Botswana Examinations Council - BEC

BEC is mandated under section 5 of the Botswana Examinations Council Act (Act No. 11 of 2002) to conduct school examinations and any other examinations for the Ministry of Education and Skills Development and issue certificates in respect of the examinations. BEC’s key business activities include examinations and assessment policy and programme development, the conduct and regulation of national school examination programmes and the award of certificates for programmes in the general education subsector. The specific functions and responsibilities of BEC are as follows:

The Council currently runs the following Internal Examinations:

· Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE).

· Junior Certificate Examination (JCE).

· Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE).

External Examinations

For those who never say it is enough in their quest for education, BEC provides testing/examinations services for international testing agencies or Examination Boards such as:

Educational Testing Service (USA):

-SAT – Scholastic Aptitudes Tests

-TOEFL – Test of English as a foreign language

-TWE – Test of written English

-GRE – Graduate Record Tests

-TSE – Test of spoken English

University of London Examinations Board:

-Diploma Courses

-Degree Courses

-Post Graduate

Examples of programs: Law, Information Systems, Health and Environmental Courses.

Edexcel International (A wing of the University of London):

-GCE ‘O’ ‘AS’ and ‘A’ level

-GCSE

-IGCSE

Association of Business Executives (ABE)

BEC Registration for Candidates

Private candidates are informed that Registration for Private Candidates will start on 17 February until 03 April for JCE and from 02 March to 30 April (For BGCSE and GCE O’ Level) Examinations. The information regarding Registration can be accessed through Malepa, the BEC website at www.bec.co.bw, the BEC Facebook page (Botswana Examinations Council) and Twitter Page (@Bots_Exams). PLSE registration will run from 03 February until 13 March

1. Click Here to download the PSLE Registration Information.

2. Click Here to download the JCE and BGCSE Registration Information.

3. Click Here for Instructions on How To Register and Pay Online.

BEC PSLE Results

The examination is held once a year (Letter and Composition for English and Setswana in August; all other papers in October). The examination is designed for candidates who have completed seven years of primary education or its equivalent. The Scheme of Examination makes provision for candidates who are studying through informal means, as well as those engaged in full-time education. Candidates must be at least 11 years old when they take the examination, but otherwise, there is no age restriction.

The examination is offered in the following subjects: Mathematics, Setswana, English, Social Studies, Science, Agriculture and Religious and Moral Education.

BEC Grading System

The PE together with the APE and SE uses mark sheets to pull out exemplar scripts to be used for finalizing the thresholds. The exemplar scripts should be for 2 marks above each cut-off and 2 marks below. There should be five scripts picked at each mark

The grades obtained by a candidate at the syllabus level are converted from alpha to numeric grades to allow for aggregation. The conversion is as follows: A = 9 B = 7 C = 5 D = 3 E = 1