By Iddi
Yire, GNA
Dambai, (V/R), July 21, GNA – Mr Michael
Katamani, Krachi East Municipal Education
Guidance and Counselling Coordinator, says an
alarming level of teenage pregnancies and early child marriages are among the
major issues affecting education in the Municipality.
He said the Municipality had a high level of
teenage pregnancy cases; stating that in the just ended Basic Education
Certificate Examination (BECE), 22 girls were pregnant.
He said of the 22, two of them were delivered
of babies during the examination week.
He noted that of the two girls, one of them
was able to complete her BECE.
Mr Katamani made these revelations in his
presentation during a courtesy call by a delegation from the United Nations
Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Ghana and the Korea International Cooperation Agency
(KOICA), on the Krachi East Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Patrick Charty Jilima
at Dambai.
The visit was to enable the delegation have an
overview of the District and programme priorities on adolescent girls.
UNICEF and KOICA are jointly implementing a
three year programme dubbed: “Better Life for Girls (BLG) and is aimed at
providing adolescent girls in Ghana with knowledge, skills, and an enabling
environment to enable them make informed decisions on issues affecting them.
The $ 5.2 million project highlights
interventions which cover health and nutrition, girls’ education and child
protection.
The objective of BLG interventions in
education is the design of package of interventions to keep girls in school,
facilitate experience sharing across districts and engage in inter-sectoral
policy dialogue for prioritising interventions to support girls’ education.
Mr Katamani said the completion rate of girls
who completed basic education within the municipality in 2017 stood at 34.3 per
cent, however, with the interventions of UNICEF and its partners indicated that
the situation would soon improve.
Mr Paul Avorkah, National Director, Department
of Community Development, said the child protection programme was now being
implemented in a holistic manner through its Child and Family Welfare policy
and Justice for Children policy.
He said they targeting, preventing child
abuse, violence against children and child neglect, and was working through
community education by engaging family members, community members and faith
based organisations to be able to empower them to support children.
Mr Avorkah said in a situation where child
abuse, child marriage issues were happening there would be a need to provide
quality services through his department, the Social Welfare Department and
Ghana Education Service, so they could respond appropriately.
“So we are training all the Assembly members
in Ghana with the information, knowledge and skills to be able to provide these
quality services,” he added.
Mr Yukyum Kim, Country Director, KOICA, said
the BLG project which was being funded by KOICA had components that underscored
approaches which could holistically support the adolescent girls’ empowerment
agenda.
He said the field visit would help KOICA and
UNICEF assess its programmes and gather evidences to enable extend its
interventions.
Madam Anne-Claire Dufay, Country Director,
UNICEF Ghana, said UNICEF had been collecting data about social indicators in
various districts and was keen in improving the situation of children,
adolescents and families in the area of social welfare, health, education,
water and sanitation.
She said it was encouraging to see the
progress already made in the lives of girls, as there were concerns about early
marriage, teenage pregnancy, school drop outs, anaemia and other issues that
girls were facing in their daily lives.
She said in the Volta Region, one person out
of three lived below the national poverty line, and one out of five girls got
married early; so these were some of the indicators they wanted to change
together with the community to make a difference in the lives of families and especially
girls.
Mr Jilima said the Assembly would soon open
two schools for only girls at Dambai and Ayeremu, to enable them have access to
education.
He noted that most of these girls had
challenges with regards to education; so the two modules dubbed “Module Girls
School” would help provide the training that would enable them to reach their
full potential.
GNA