The 2023 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) that started on Monday 24th July saw a total of 130,857 candidates registering for the examination with 67,107 (51.28%) are girls and 63,750 (48.72%) are boys.

Since 2020 there have been more female candidates taking the BECE than their male counterparts for the third year in a row and this is unprecedented in the history of the examination in the country.

The 2022 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) saw a pass rate of 84.05% in Language Arts, 87.75% in Mathematics and Integrated Science had the highest pass rate (87.78%), which is the best BECE result in recent memory.

The number of candidates sitting BECE has increased by 43% in the period 2018-22, reaching 127,889 students for whom results were released to the MBSSE. Note that 2,427 fewer candidates sat BECE in 2022 than in 2021 largely due to fewer candidates having to repeat the exam in 2022 as many had passed in 2021.

The pass rate for individual papers has climbed from 76.8% in 2021 to 84.4% in 2022

The top candidate was a girl and 16 out of the 27 candidates with aggregate scores 6 or 7 were also girls i.e. there were more girls than boys at the very top in terms of performance in BECE 2022.

The Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) comes at the end of formal basic education in Sierra Leone. It is administered by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC).

The outgoing Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education Dr. Moinina David Sengeh during the Transformative Leadership for Gender Equality through Education Conference at the Bintumani Conference Center in Freetown asserted that Sierra Leone has achieved gender parity in schools with more girls enrolled, more girls taking exams and more girls passing.

“Today, I am proud to tell you that Sierra Leone has achieved gender parity in our schools. We have more girls enrolled, more girls taking exams and more girls passing. But that’s just the start. We want our girls to transition to higher and technical institutions particularly pursuing Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) related courses. We want more women in our classrooms and we want more women leaders,” he said.

According to the outgoing Minister, this is why the government has made it tuition free for girls wanting to pursue those courses related to STEM and Education.

He encouraged all of them to be ambitious and go beyond gender parity in accessing education, noting that all should ensure that the full rewards of education are also enjoyed equally.

“We have more girls than boys in primary and junior secondary schools. We are actively working to improve the transition of girls into senior secondary and into tertiary and higher institutions,” he said.

He calls on stakeholders to ensure that they lay the foundation for societies with equality before the law, equal representation, equal pay for equal work, and equal opportunity regardless of gender, physical ability, and the size of your bank account or the location of their home.

“The foundation for our democracy rests on the full participation of our courageous women of all ages in our debates, and it is the only path to a peaceful and prosperous society. That is why we work to strengthen education as a vehicle to get more courageous women to lend their full voice to our future political development. When girls have equal access and progression in our education systems, they will better participate in our political systems,” he said.