Six pregnant girls and one nursing mother are taking part in the ongoing Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in the Wenchi Municipality of the Bono Region.
The examination, which commenced on Monday throughout the country, ends today.
Mr. Seth Mensah, Wenchi Municipal Examinations Coordinator, disclosed this in an interview with Wenchi-based Radio West Africa monitored by The Chronicle.
He added that fifteen students, made up of seven females and eight boys, did not show up for the exams.
“One of the male absentees met his untimely death after registration,” Mr. Mensah disclosed in the interview. The remaining fourteen absentee candidates did not assign any reasons.
In 2018, statistics from the then Brong-Ahafo Regional Girl Child Education Network revealed at the time that a total of 138 pregnant girls wrote that year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in the region.
Seventy-four of the pregnant girls could not write the examination, Mrs. Beatrice Mamle Nkum, the then Brong-Ahafo Regional Coordinator of Girl-Child Education said at the time.
In the 2016/2017 academic year, the then Brong-Ahafo Region recorded 778 pregnancies, 144 in primary, 573 in Junior High and 91 in Senior High Schools.
In 2015, twenty-four pregnant girls and eight nursing mothers participated in the Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) in the Asutifi North District in the then Brong-Ahafo region.
At the time, the number represented a 100 per cent increment over the previous year’s figures, which had 12 pregnant girls and 12 nursing mothers as candidates
In 2014, 34 teenage Junior High School girls wrote that year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in Techiman.
ASUTIFI NORTH
The District Chief Executive for Asutifi North in the Ahafo Region, Anthony Mensah has expressed his delight over the absence of pregnancies among this year’s BECE candidates in his district.
He made this revelation during a visit to BECE centers in Kenyasi and Ntotroso, where he was joined by the Ahafo Regional Education Director, the Ahafo Minister, and the Asutifi North Education Director.
