Interventions up girls’ enrollment in Central Region
Various intervention schemes implemented in the Central Region have helped to increase girls’ enrolment at the pre and basic school levels.
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The regional Girls Education Officer of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mrs Nora Afful, who disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency in an interview, mentioned the interventions as scholarship schemes, girls’ education camps, clubs and other social interventions.
She said apart from the interventions, the unit also implemented a role model outreach programme in rural schools to encourage young girls to aspire to higher heights.
Mrs Afful said with the various interventions, a total of 57,537 girls were enrolled at the kindergarten (KG) level; 143,232 at the primary; while the junior high schools (JHSs) registered 55,725 at the end of last year.
Pregnant students
She, however, expressed worry that 88 female candidates who sat for the 2014 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in the region were pregnant. They were, however, allowed to write the exams.
Mrs Afful underscored the importance of girl- child education, saying if a girl was denied her right to education, it increased her risk of being exploited, abused and becoming vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections such as HIV and AIDS.
“Educating girls, however, is a step towards eliminating poverty, advancing human development and stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS…, promoting girls’ education would also get the boys to school,” she explained.
Mrs Afful identified the non-availability of a vehicle to visit the rural schools as the major challenge facing the intervention programme and called on parents, teachers, government and other stakeholders to ‘help uplift the image of the girl-child. — GNA
