Six pregnant girls, four in the Ellembelle district and two in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality, are among the candidates current­ly writing the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in the West­ern Region.

In the Ellembelle district, the total number of candidates taking the exams is 1,441, out of which 805 are boys and 636 are girls.

The candidates are writing the examination in five (5) centres, name­ly, Bonzo Kaku Senior High School (SHS), Nkroful Agricultural SHS, Esiama Secondary Technical, Anyinase Methodist Primary and Atuabo Methodist Primary.

At Bonzo Kaku SHS, 413 candi­dates—comprising 203 females and 210 males - were present for the examination. One male candidate was absent.

At Anyinase Methodist Primary, a total number of 234 candidates, out of which 134 were boys and 100 were girls, were writing the examination.

The Atuabo Methodist Primary examination centre had 143 candidates, out of which 81 were boys and 62 were girls.

Nkroful Agricultural SHS centre also had 324 candidates writing the exams; 184 were males and 142 were females. At the Esiama Secondary Technical centre, 327 candidates—196 males and 131 females—were writing the examination at the time this paper visited the centre.

In the Tarkwa municipality a total of 2,008 candidates from 52 schools are taking the examination. Two of the female candidates are pregnant.

JHS Two Girl Deceives Mother                                          

In a related development, a JHS 2 student of Ketan Methodist Junior High School, who had allegedly been deceiving her mother that she was in JHS, was exposed yesterday.

According to sources, the girl went to her mother at the market yesterday when the examination was ongoing.

When the mother asked her what she was doing at the market at the time of the exams, the girl, Mabel Jaspa, lied that she had been denied access to the examination hall because she had bushy hair.

Her mother, who allegedly believed what the daughter told her, became worried and started granting interviews to journalists.

However, a visit to the school by journalists revealed that the girl was not a candidate.

Speaking on the issue, the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Director of Education, Franklin Dzigbede, noted that the girl in question was a form two girl and was therefore not taking part in the examination.

Meanwhile, Mr Patrick Sumaila Wayoe, Sekondi Controller of the West African Examination Council (WAEQ, revealed that a total of 44,094 candidates are writing the examination in the region.

Out of that number, 23,602 are males and 20,492 are females.