The Ministry of Gender Children and Social Protection has expressed disquiet about the poor retention of girls in schools in the Upper West Region.
The National Director for the Ministry, Dr. Comfort Asare said it is unacceptable that in the 21st Century some girls are being denied education.
At a durbar to celebrate the ‘Girl-Child,’ at Zinye in the Wa East District, it came to light that girls in Zinye for close to a decade could not further their education to the secondary level after completing Junior High School because of teenage pregnancies and child marriages.
The number of girls who also transited from the primary level to the Junior High School level also decreases year after year.
The durbar was to educate the community and its leaders on the need to ensure that their female children go to school. It was also an opportunity for girls already in school to share their opinions with the Ministry of how it can create a more conducive environment for teaching and learning.
According to statistics from the Upper West Regional Girl Child Education Unit of the Ghana Education Service (GES), only 50 percent of the girls who moved from the primary level to the Junior High School level in 2017/2018 wrote the BECE. The percentage went down to 49 percent in 2018/2019.
The National Director of the Ministry of Gender Children and Social Protection, Dr Comfort Asare said communities like Zinye should work with the traditional leaders, the Regional Gender Desk Office, CSOs and the relevant security agencies to prevent forced and early marriages and prosecute individuals who prey on young girls.
“I am very sad and broken within and I say sorry to all the girls who have been victims of gender based violence and have dropped out of school. We [Ministry of Gender Children and Social Protection] promise to work with your honorable chiefs here [Zinye] and the education officers to reverse this situation. If you are parent here, help your girl-child to finish school,” she advised.
Dr. Asare continued to say that “traditions are good, but the traditions that are not helping us must be done away with. Child marriage must end. Female Genital Mutilation must stop, wife beating must stop, violence against girls must stop and maltreatment against children in general must stop”.
The National Director of the Ministry, Dr. Asare explained that “there are sociocultural, economic and political imbalances in Ghana emanating from persistent patriarchal sociocultural systems”. She added that the result of the biased system is the continued absence of women in major decision making platforms.
The Director was unhappy that although women constituted 52 percent of the country’s population, parliament was made up of less than 30 percent of women. Dr Asare continued to say that this is particularly worrying because of the many treaties Ghana has signed and ratified stipulating an increased participation of women in local and national governance.
The Wa East Education Director, Aisha Jinsung appealed to parents to allow their children to climb the academic ladder.
Madam Aisha who is visually impaired said if her parents had not allowed her to further her education because she was a girl, she would not have risen to become the District Director of Education.
“Please parents, let the girl child go to school. After all if they marry what are you going to get? Even if they [male suitors] give you cows, if the girl child had gone to school, she would be able to buy you [parents] many cows more than what you’d have collected,” She insisted.
The Executive Director for Action Aid, George Dery disclosed the organization has supported DOVVSU to put a number of teachers before court for impregnating girls still in school while others are serving varying jail sentences.
He appealed for support from community members and traditional authorities to continue to fight for the rights of the girls.
The Upper West Regional Director for Girl Child Education under the Ghana Education (GES), Annacleta Viiru said the issue of teenage pregnancy should be looked at critically. She revealed that 83 of the 6,335 girls registered to write the BECE were absent.
Thirty-five (35), out of the Eighty-three (83), were absent due to pregnancy.
Thirteen (13) other girls had to breastfeed their babies while writing the BECE while one of the pregnant girls in the Sissala East Municipality delivered her baby during the BECE.
She admitted that indeed at the lower levels, more girls were admitted in the Kindergarten level and then between Primary 1 and 3. Madam Viiru said the challenge lies within retention from Primary 4 through to the Junior High School, Senior High School and the Tertiary Level.
Story filed by Mark Smith
