The Center for Active Learning and Integrated Development (CALID), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), has engaged some parents and stakeholders on how to promote education among females, especially school drop-outs and teenage mothers in the Savannah Region.
The event took place at Tuna in the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District of the Savannah Region, and it was carried out in partnership with Queen Mothers in the Bole Traditional Area.
It was to seek participants’ inputs on the mechanisms to adopt to ensure that every young girl had access to education in the region.
It formed part of the Education for Active Citizens (EFAC) project being implemented by CALID in collaboration with the Savanah Regional branch of the Queen Mothers Association with funding support from OXFAM in Ghana.
Kansawurche Hajia Veronica Ajara Bukari, Queen Mother of Kansa, who spoke during the event, said it was also to discuss issues affecting the welfare and education of the girl-child in the region.
She noted that education was one of the significant ways to promote positive change as well as eradicate poverty in the country, and emphasised the need for parents to support their children in that regard.
She further spoke about skills training, saying, “Though skills training is laudable for the girl-child, one should not get all female children on the line of skills training but should try and enroll a number of them in education.”
She mentioned financial challenges as one of the causes for teenage pregnancies, saying, “Most females have fallen prey to becoming teenage mothers all in the name of skills training and this is as a result of lack of patronage and poor financial capabilities among these young females.”
Hajia Bukari appealed to parents and guardians to provide adequate support to children enrolled on soft skills training to enable them to go through the process fully and noted that this would be their contribution to ending child marriage, teenage pregnancies, child labour and other negative socio-cultural practices that hindered girls’ education in the region.
Madam Mavis Gyasi, Gender Officer of Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District, touched on the role of parents, urged them to take issues of child protection seriously.
Madam Gyasi said by so doing, parents would appreciate the importance of taking good care of their children, and indicated it would ensure quality education, especially among the girls.
Mr. Collins Bayinye, Programme Officer of CALID, urged the Queen Mothers Association, the Gender Officers of the District Assemblies and Girl-Child Education Officer of the Ghana Education Service (GES) to collaborate and coordinate their efforts on safe return to school of pregnant and drop-out girls in the region.
He said the reintegration into schools especially of those young ladies, who were victims of COVID-19 related pregnancies, should be encouraged to stay in school.
He told the community members that GES’ policy allowed readmission of teenage mothers to school, adding that they were not to be discriminated against.
He further urged teachers to support such girls through their education emphasising that individuals especially students, who survived COVID-19 should also be encouraged to go back to school.
Madam Lucila Biyori, a participant during the engagement, lauded CALID and its partners for enlightening them, saying, she would impart the knowledge she had acquired to other members of her community to help achieve the desired results.
