Tawiah Osei, a seventeen-year-old mother who took part in the 2025 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), has counseled her peers to refrain from having sex in order to prevent being pregnant while still in school.
Reports from the just ended BECE revealed that many of the female candidates were pregnant or nursing mothers. For example, the Upper East Region’s record shows that 19,523 candidates took the exam, including 17 nursing mothers and 21 pregnant girls.
Tawiah, who gave birth to a girl a month prior to her final examinations, described how the pregnancy happened while she was in school on Akoma Mu Nsem show via Akoma 87.9 FM on 19th June hosted by Beatrice Spio Garbrah.
“On a Monday evening, I was at home with my grandmother, who invited me to church, but I declined because I was working on an assignment from School.”
“As I was alone in the house with the door unlocked, an unknown man entered and grabbed me by the mouth, forced and raped me in the process. It was my first time having sexual intercourse, so I couldn’t pull myself up to see who it was. My grandmother returned later in the night and found me bleeding,” she narrated.
Tawiah said that some of her acquaintances advised her to abort the baby, which she attempted but failed at.
“Two months later, I discovered I was pregnant. My friends advised me to get rid of the baby, so I went to the drugstore but was still unable to do it. During my pregnancy, I left school because I was ashamed of my peers criticizing me,” she said.
The teenager’s life grew challenging as she tried to balance academics and caring for her pregnancy. Studying became tough because she sometimes fell asleep. On other occasions, she had sleepless nights.
Tawiah claimed that she had to sometimes leave the hall during the examination period to breastfeed the one-month-old infant and counsel friends to avoid having any sexual intercourse so that they realize their goals in life.
“Studying became tough for me due to the pregnancy; I couldn’t sleep most of the time, and thoughts of the pending examinations scared me even a month after giving birth,” she added.
“During exam periods, I had to leave the hall to meet my daughter and milk her since she cried aloud. I will tell my friends not to engage in sex with any man in order to prevent a circumstance like mine because it is not encouraging to experience this,” Tawiah concluded.
The presence of pregnant girls and breastfeeding mothers in the BECE has prompted concerns about adolescent welfare and girl-child education in Ghana.
While stakeholders have praised the high female engagement rate, they emphasize the importance of addressing the underlying reasons of early pregnancy and teenage motherhood.
