GNAT reacts as females outnumber males in 2023 WASSCE & BECE

The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has called for sustained efforts by all Ghanaians to encourage and support males to stay in school to enable them to develop their full potential for life and national development.

The teacher union call comes after females outnumbered the number of boys in this academic year’s West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).

Mr Thomas Musah, the General Secretary of the Association of Teachers in an interview with Daily Graphic newspaper said initiatives to motivate boys to go to school and remain throughout their studies must be sustained.

“If we are having a situation where you have the female number increasing against the males, then we are in trouble. Where are the males going to? Are they dropping out of school and if they are dropping out of school, where are they now?” he quizzed.

Musah added “It means they would certainly go into child labour, they would go into other social vices which the nation might not be able to contain. We need these people in the various sectors of the economy and not in prisons.”

“So in policy formulation and being mindful of the requirement of ensuring that the country lives a healthy life in every aspect of economic development, you need both males and females,” the member of the teacher union told Graphic.

Current statistics from the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) sighted by AcademicWeek.com indicate that girls have outstripped boys in this year’s two examinations thus WASSCE for School and BECE for School Candidates.

For this academic year’s West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), a total of 447,204 candidates of which 211,834 are males and 235,370 are females are writing the Ghana version of the international examination.

The 2023 edition of the ongoing WASSCE for School Candidates commenced on Monday, July 31, 2023, with the Visual Art Project work is expected to end on September 26, 2023, at 834 examination centres across the country.

In regard to this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), a total of 600,714 candidates representing 300,323 males and 300,391, females participated in the national examination which ended on August 11, 2023.