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The 2013 West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) officially ends today, May 17, 2013 with the re-writing of the Government One and Two papers which were cancelled. Routine inspection during the writing of the said papers on April 22 showed that some candidates were in possession of materials which suggested that the Government papers had been compromised. Other papers to be written today include Technical Drawing and Arabic. There were apprehensions over the smooth conduct of the examination before it commenced on April 9 because of the large number of students involved. A total of 409,753 candidates from 724 public and private senior high schools (SHS) were expected to write the examination across the country. They comprised 220,866 males and 188,881 females. The examination was written simultaneously in four other English-speaking West African countries � Nigeria, Liberia, The Gambia and Sierra Leone. Ghana presented the highest number of candidates this year who came from the two batches of final-year SHS students. They were the last batch of four-year SHS students under the 2007 educational reform and the first batch of three-year SHS students following the reversal of the duration of SHS education from four to three years in 2010. The Ashanti Region presented the highest number of candidates � 102,906 � made up of 54,561 males and 48,345 females, followed by the Eastern Region, which presented 64,201 candidates, comprising 31,975 males and 32,226 females. Greater Accra had 44,731 candidates, made up of 23,596 males and 21,135 females, while Central had 43,655 candidates, comprising 23,047 males and 20,608 females. Volta Region presented 35,856 candidates, of which 19,994 are males and 15,862 females. The rest are: Brong Ahafo, 35,692 candidates (19,503 males and 16,189 females); Northern, 31,645 (19,872 males and 11,773 females); Western, 29,692 (15,848 males and 13,844 females); Upper East, 12,691 (7,287 males and 5,404 females) and Upper West, 8,678 (5,183 males and 3,495 females). Before the commencement of the examination, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) had declared its readiness to host the more than 400,000 candidates. The Ghana Education Service (GES) also sent SHS One and Two students on vacation to create enough space and teachers for a conducive atmosphere for the examination. The Conference of Heads of Assisted Senior High Schools (CHASS) pledged its fullest support for the examination.