Determination, mother, 17 takes baby to examination centre

Kwae (Eastern Region) 05 July 2002- A 17 year-old junior secondary school pupil, who sat the Basic education Certificate Examination (BECE) at Kwae in April when she was pregnant has now delivered and is re-sitting the examination.

In between her papers she breastfeeds the baby. Mr A. W. Yiadom-Boakye, Kwaebibirem District Chief Executive met the girl during his tour of the examination centres in the district and commended her for her determination. The young mother is among 243 candidates sitting the examination at the Ghana Oil Palm Development Company complex schools at Kwae.

Five pupils did not turn up for the examination at the centre, three girls who are pregnant, a boy who is dead and another boy who dropped out. The District Director of Education, Mr Twumasi Ankrah and an Assistant Director of Education at the District Directorate of Ghana Education Service (GES) and a member of the monitoring team toured the examination centres.

At Akyem Takyiman Methodist Junior Secondary School (JSS) centre, there were 316 pupils taking the examination with eight absentees as against four in the cancelled examination. At Asuom Secondary School Centre, out of the 492 registered candidates 12 were absent. Five hundred and sixty candidates were taking the examination at the Kade Secondary Technical School centre with four absentees.