As the 2025 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) kicks off tomorrow, a concerning statistic has emerged from the Upper East Regional Office of the Ghana Education Directorate: among the 10,681 female candidates set to write the exams, 21 are already heavily pregnant and 17 are lactating mothers.
The regional total of registered candidates for this year’s BECE stands at 19,523, with 8,842 boys and 10,681 girls from both public and private basic schools. The exams will be administered across 90 examination centers in the region from Wednesday, June 11 to Wednesday, June 18, 2025.
While education stakeholders have lauded the high female participation in this year’s BECE in the region, the statistics on early pregnancies and teenage motherhood have sparked concern about the state of adolescent welfare and girl-child education in the area.
The data indicates that approximately 1 out of every 255 girls sitting for the BECE in the region is either pregnant or already a mother, a figure education and health experts find alarming. The presence of these 38 girls—21 pregnant and 17 lactating mothers—highlights a growing trend that continues to challenge efforts to keep girls in school and ensure they complete basic education uninterrupted.
As the exams commence tomorrow, education authorities have assured that all candidates—regardless of their condition—will be given the needed support to write the exams under dignified and accommodating conditions.
But the numbers remain a sobering reminder that while access to education is improving, the safety, health, and futures of many young girls in the Upper East Region still hang in the balance.
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1Mhz|Joshua Asaah|Bolgatanga
