STATISTICS FROM the Girls Education Unit of the Ghana Education Service in the Brong Ahafo Region have revealed that 74 girls from different schools and districts in the region were not able to take the recent Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) due to pregnancy.
However, 138 girls who also got pregnant in 17 districts of the region during the same period were able to sit for the examination and are now enjoying the free SHS programme.
Regional Girl-Child Coordinator, Madam Beatrice Mamle Nkum, revealed this yesterday during a press briefing. She said the unit was not happy about the fact that girls still constitute majority of children who are out of school due to pregnancy, child marriage, parental neglect, poverty and unfriendly school environment, though the unit is working hard to stop the canker.
Addressing stakeholders who are interested in the right of the girl-child on measures to adopt to stop the canker, she asked them to go out to communities and educate parents and opinion leaders on the directives given by the president of the land, Nana Ado Dankwa Akufo-Addo, that all girls who failed to take the BECE or failed in the exams due to teenage pregnancy should go back to school and register to retake the BECE for free, as government has taken the cost of registration. She added “even those who are carrying pregnancies can still go back to school”.
Giving statistics to buttress the assertion, she said despite efforts to reduce teenage pregnancy amongst girls in schools in the region, the figures are still alarming. In 2016/17 for instance, she said 778 became pregnant – 114 were in primary schools, 573 in JHS and 91 in SHS. She disclosed that a greater percentage of the above number was not able to continue their education to the secondary schools, which she asserted was bad.
Another worrying trend in the region that is militating against the education of girls is early-girl marriages especially in the Muslim communities such as Tain, Banda Ahenkro, Atebubu, and Kintampo Districts.
However, she was happy 47 teenage mothers whose education was truncated due to early marriages have been enrolled back to school in the 2017/18 academic year through the efforts of the Girls Education Unit in collaboration with other civil society organizations.
FROM Daniel Y Dayee, Sunyani
danielyaodayee@yahoo.com