Scholarship scheme for JHS female students in U/W

About 347 girls from 15 junior high schools in the Upper West Region are benefitting from a scholarship package meant to encourage them to remain in school.

The package from UK Aid, under the Global Partnership for Education in Ghana (GPEG) project, includes the provision of quantities of stationery items and sanitary towels, school bags, mathematical sets, footwear and school uniforms.

According to Mrs Vida P. Palkuu, officer-in-charge of Girl-Child Education at the Lambussie-Karni District Education Directorate, beneficiaries were selected on the basis of academic performance and their commitment to academic work, by way of regular school attendance.

“Such beneficiaries should also be identified as truly needy or even orphaned,” she explained.

Beneficiary districts

In the Upper West, beneficiary female students from the 15 schools are spread across the 10 districts of the region, with the exception of the Wa Municipality.

Seventy-five districts in all parts of the country are benefitting from the scholarship scheme.

Mrs Palkuu said the scheme was designed to motivate the average girl-child and their parents to appreciate the value of education.

By the terms of the scheme, a beneficiary girl would lose her status if she became pregnant, got married while still in school, slacked in attendance to classes or dropped out of school.

Academic performance

"You have to learn hard and maintain your academic performance to continue to benefit from the scheme," she told the beneficiaries at a ceremony at the Chebogo R/C Junior High School at Chebogo where 34 girls are benefitting from the scheme.

"At your ages, your duty is to remain in school and learn, not marriage or engage in childbirth. Don't allow early marriage or childbirth to waste your future," she added, and reminded the parents present at the ceremony to be interested in the future of their children by grooming them to embrace education.

The District Chief Executive for Lambussie-Karni, Mr Bom Kofi Dy-yaka, said the support from UK Aid, the country’s development partner, was a complement to the efforts of the government to provide for the educational needs of the people.

He urged the girls to take full advantage of the package, which was reserved for JHS girls, to attain the best academic standards.

"With interventions like this and others from the government, each one of you can become a minister of state, a teacher, doctor, or any other professional you aspire to become," he said when he addressed 18 beneficiary girls of Sina-Dindee D/A Junior High School and their parents.

"Don't allow others to ruin your future by getting you pregnant at this early age," he added.