High Rate Of Pregnant Candidates At Just-ended BECE

The rate of pregnancies recorded in the just-ended  Basic Education
Certificate Examination conducted by the West African Examinations
Council (WAEC) in some parts of the country is alarming and must be of concern to all. 

Whist most parents would like to think they are neither  part of the problem not the solution,  the fact remains that if parents, teachers and society at large, shirk their shared and collective moral obligation to give the girl child sex education at the beginning of their teens, they will have to bear the consequences.

In the same vein if parents, teachers and society refuse to admit that we all have a shared  responsibility to ensure that our teenage girls are groomed to prepare them for healthy sex life.  

Parents, teachers and society must understand that the teenage girl getting pregnant during her basic education has a lot of health and economic hazards,
with social implications.  

The consequences include the embarrassment brought to the family as a result of the pregnancy, dropping out of
school, attending antenatal clinics, her inability to write the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) or going to write the examination in her pregnant condition and increase in the family budget for the upkeep of the pregnant daughter and grandchild.  

In the Eastern Region It was reported that 36 pregnant girls were among the Junior High School  candidates who wrote the BECE in seven districts.

A  16-year-old girl of the Akyem Apiredi JHS in the Birim South
District, is reported to have given  birth to a bouncing baby boy whilst writing her examination.  

Three pregnant girls, including a
21-year old from Apuya D/A JHS at Jacobu, were among candidates in the Amansie Central District of the Ashanti Region who wrote this year’s BECE.  

In the Huni/Prestea Valley District of the Western Region,
eight pregnant  girls  wrote the examination .  Ten girls in the Agona West Municipality of the Central Region who sat for the BECE were reported to be pregnant, an increase from four in 2013. 

Two girls, who delivered two days before the commencement of the examinations, could not take part.  

Statistic available at the Nabdam Girls Child Education Unit of the Ghana Education Service (GES) of the Upper East Region revealed that since the beginning of the 2013/14 academic year, a total of 43 teenage school girls were made pregnant. Out of the 43, 30 of them were said to be candidates in the 2014 BECE with ages
ranging between 14 to 17 years. 

Seventeen  out of the 30 pregnant
candidates delivered before the examinations began.
 
The reason  of the pregnant girls in almost all the districts
mentioned, was attributed to financial constraints of their parents, poverty, insufficient time for sex education, inadequate monitoring due to lack of resources, and irresponsible parenting among others.

However, it has been confirmed that both adolescent boys and girls attend musical events at night, a practice very common in some districts and municipalities.

Parents are obliged to provide for their adolescent girls, their
basic needs including shelter, food, clothing and relating well with them, to save them from temptations.
 
To curb this menace, there is the need  for a comprehensive sex
education programme in JHSs and SHSs to protect female students from not only unwanted pregnancies but also sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). 

Also, because adolescent girls go through many stages of development, they should be helped to manage themselves well through sex education.  

This is informed by the fact that the adolescence stage involves many complicated issues, and therefore it behoves all
concerned, especially teachers, parents, religious organizations and civil Society Organisations , to make girls aware of issues such as sex, to save them from things which can disrupt  their education, and shatter their future. 

This will also go a long way to sensitise students on the dangers of premarital sex and unsafe abortion.  Even though the panacea for unwanted  pregnancies is abstinence from sex, girls who cannot abstain ought to be provided basic information on
dangers associated with teenage pregnancy, diseases associated with unprotected sex, reproductive health, family planning and nutrition,
to protect them.  

It should be noted that, the notion of most Ghanaians that sex education promotes sexual promiscuity among teenagers, is factually inaccurate and should be discarded. At the end of the day we will be saving female students, teachers, parents and
all concerned from inconveniences and uncertainties associated with
unwanted pregnancy.

By Dan Osman Mwin, Head of the Public Relations Unit of the Ministry of Health