Sixteen candidates out of a total of 4,225 registered for this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in Ketu South Municipality are pregnant.

The pregnant candidates were noticed from six out of the thirteen examination centres for the 2020 BECE with Saint Paul’s SHS ‘A’ recording the highest number of five.

Three-Town ‘B’ has recorded four pregnant candidates, Avoeme JHS, one case while Some SHS, Three-Town ‘A’ and Viepe R.C. JHS have two cases each.

Checks by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) showed that while some of these girls were physically present to write the BECE papers on both first and second days, the others were absent.

Madam Cecilia Dokli, the Ketu South Municipal Girl Child Education Officer, said her outfit did its best including holding sensitisation workshops to highlight the need for the pregnant girls to be kept in school and appealed to parents and guardians to encourage them to remain in school.

“Before the start of this BECE, we went around some homes, where we heard of pregnancy cases to appeal to the girls to come and write their exit examination so they could pursue their education even after childbirth.”

“Surprisingly, at some places we visited, parents were adamant to give the team audience, saying their children were not at home. We later found out that the girls were hiding in the rooms.

"We cannot do this alone that’s why we’re calling for the cooperation of parents and guardians, who live together with these girls at home, for the needed impact,” she added.

Madam Dokli said school-based facilitators were educating the girls on the re-entry policy aimed at giving opportunities to teenage mothers to go back to school.

She charged girls to aspire to high academic levels and not allow pregnancy to deprive them of a bright future.

“You can always go back to school after childbirth, all that you need is confidence,” she added.