Increasing rates of pregnancies among school girls a source of deep concern, says West Mamprusi Education Director
The District Director of Education in the West Mamprusi District in the Northern Region, Hajia Mase Sulemana has appealed to the District Chief Executive for the area to institute, what she called, a very vibrant District Education Oversight Committee (DEOC) to deal with falling standards of education in the district.
The director’s appeal was occasioned by the worrying phenomenon that is crippling the efforts of stakeholders in education at ensuring that future leaders, particularly females are educated.
Hajia Sulemana, who was explaining the worrying situation to Zaa News at the forecourt of the West Mamprusi District Assembly at a day’s stakeholder’s VSO-ISODEC durbar said, most female candidates for this year’s West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) are pregnant.
She explained that most parents reneged on their responsibilities and have left the girls to men in the area to take care of them.
These men, Hajia Sulemana said, fear losing the girls after they complete school and deliberately decided to impregnate them. “I visited some exam centers in the district and I found that most the girls taking the exam are pregnant due to irresponsible parents,” Hajia Sulemana told Zaa News.
She told the stakeholders that education in the West Mamprusi district is sinking and urged them to wake up from their slumber.
According to Hajia Sulemana, most stakeholders sit down unconcerned, because they don’t know their role. Performance in both the WASSCE and the BECE, the director said, is dwindling, especially in girl child education for the past four years.
The Programs Coordinator of ISODEC, Madam Agnes Ganda lamented over the continued marginalization of women, in spite of the roles they play in the society.
Women. she said. continue to play both their traditional and modern roles; productive, reproductive and community roles effectively and yet the impact is not much felt because the educated professionals and influential women are few.
Madam Ganda said the Tackling Education Needs inclusively (TENI) was a joint collaborative project that intends to promote and ensure girls enrollment, transition, retention and completion with good performance in the district.
The project Madam Ganda explained was to also to ensure that children with disabilities are enrolled in school and teaching and learning is made equal possible for them as a right.
ISODEC found that the barriers to girl child education in the the West Mamprusi district are kayaye, early marriage, and teenage pregnancy/
It is the hope of ISODEC that by-laws approved by the Chiefs and other opinion leaders in the district will will be push by the DCE for gazetting.
