GES trains Back-to-School advocacy task force
The National Director of the Girls Education Unit of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Ms Benedicta Seidu, has urged teenage mothers to return to school to further their education.
She said the GES had rolled out a comprehensive policy to create an enabling environment to enable them to fulfil their ambitions to contribute their quota to national development.
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Ms Seidu made the call at a one-day training for the Back to School advocacy task force in the Ledzokuku Municipality in Accra.
She said in spite of efforts to bring such students back to school, there were still some left behind, urging parents and relevant stakeholders to play their respective roles to ensure those students were brought back to school.
“If you have a child now who does not want secondary education, it is the fault of that child and the parents as well so let us put in the necessary effort to bring them back to school,” she said.
Workshop
The workshop was organised by the Girls' Education Unit of the GES with other collaborators for the District Advocacy Taskforce on the back-to-school campaign.
The members of the task force are officials from the Department of Social Welfare, Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU), chiefs and religious bodies, teachers, headmasters and parents.
The collaborators included the GES' Special Education Division, the School Health Education Programme (SHEP), the Guidance and Counselling Unit and an external resource person.
Issues discussed included ways to facilitate the re-entry of young mothers to school, safe schooling and psychosocial support for students.
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Abstinence
A programme Officer at the Girls’ Education unit of the GES, Ms Juliana Awuni, in her presentation, explained that the GES position on pregnancy among schoolchildren had always been abstinence hence the need for the schools in the municipality to implement strategies to prevent pregnancy in schools.
She took participants through unsafe school practices, elements of safe school environment, measures to promote a safe school environment and stakeholders' role to make school safe.
She identified bullying, lack of cordial relationship between teachers and students, intimidation and stigmatisation as unsafe practices that led to low school enrolment.
The situation, she said, could be avoided by using positive disciplinary measures such as strengthening disciplinary committees in schools, putting in place good reporting mechanisms, building a cordial relationship, motivation strategies among others.
She also tasked parents and guardians to be responsible for nurturing their children.
Cooperation
The Teshie District Commander, Chief Superintendent Antwi Boasiako, urged stakeholders to cooperate with the police to help deal with culprits.
He said often, teachers and parents who reported cases of defilement were unwilling to help the police to build a strong case against culprits.