In almost every area of life, there are always external and internal facilitators and reinforcing factors that need to be taken into account when measuring progress and achievements.
This year, a staggering 570,461 candidates will sit the 2024 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). Some may be looking for what has inspired such high expectations. Look no further. The free SHS policy could be one of them.
This impressive figure was collected from 19,506 schools across the country, with the examinations being conducted at 2,123 examination centres across Ghana.
The recent announcement by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) confirming the number of candidates who sat the examinations is therefore seen as a resounding victory for the free SHS policy. Beneficiary parents and their children are no doubt targeting the scheme with passing the BECE as a gateway to success.
The total number of applicants is not only impressive but also humbling. Hope seems to grow with each passing year for those who in the past were unable to complete their schooling due to financial hardships, especially those who never made it beyond the barriers of SHS.
One can therefore justifiably assume that with the free SHS policy still in place, prospective candidates are eager to obtain the “entrance” qualification to access the policy.The fundamental game-changer that free SHS is, as can be seen from the statistics released by WAEC in connection with this year’s BECE, is exciting and encouraging.
Female candidates
What excited me most was learning that out of the total number of participants this year, the number of female participants outnumbered the male participants by over 100,000.
This year, there were 282,648 male candidates and, surprisingly, 386,447 female candidates also appeared for the exam. There was a slight increase in the number of individual candidates, with 735 males and 631 females registering for the exam.
But that is not something to worry about too much, because if you analyze it well, you can make the case in favor of women candidates and say that there should not have been so many women running as individual candidates, given their past success. Unfortunately, there are no statistics to back up any claim.
However, even for an ignorant person outside the education system, a simple analysis of the overall increase in BECE figures shows some obvious driving factors, one of which is the free SHS system already in place. After all, who wouldn’t want to take the BECE to also get the opportunity for free SHS? Previously, many of them would have discontinued basic level schooling due to financial constraints.
Another thing that really impressed me was the number of girls who registered to take the exams. In the past, and more recently in 2021, even just after COVID-19 hit, there were reports of an alarming number of teenage girls dropping out of school due to teenage pregnancy.
It became clear at the time that these girls had little to look forward to in terms of their educational future, and after experiencing “accidental” pregnancies during the quarantine period, they had no desire to return to the classroom once COVID-19 had subsided.
Apart from financial difficulties, they feared being discriminated against in the community and teased by their schoolmates for calling them “mom.” Another concern for them was whether there would be anyone to look after their baby when they returned to school.
To mitigate all this and encourage more teenage girls to return to school after becoming pregnant, the Ghana Education Service (GES) conducted a study on how to encourage girls to stay or return to school after pregnancy, which resulted in the establishment of a unit to support girls who are victims of school dropout.
The GES Support Unit has encouraged many girls to take advantage of the opportunities that staying in school offers. Staying in school is the best way to gain knowledge and a tool to enter the workforce as an entrepreneur or employee. The knowledge gained by staying in school allows them to take control of their own future and that of their families.
For now and in the future, we can only hope and pray that the excellent enrolment rate of girls at the basic education level and therefore at BECE will translate into success in sending just as many girls to senior high school and beyond.
We encourage our girls to achieve even better and wish them the best in the educational journey they set themselves. We hope that Dr. Kwegile Aggrey’s oft-used adage that educating a woman is about educating not just the individual but the entire community will also apply to the 2024 female BECE candidates.
That’s my bias.
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Contact the author at vickywirekoandoh@yahoo.com.
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