General News of Wednesday, 7 November 2018
Source: www.ghananewsagency.org
2018-11-07
The program was themed, ‘Strategic Approaches To Girls Education (STAGE)’
The World Education Ghana, has organized a day’s stakeholder’s forum in Accra aimed at studying and making inputs towards marginalized and vulnerable girls in the educational system in Ghana.
It was on theme, “Strategic Approaches To Girls Education (STAGE) Project”.
The programme dubbed “Leave no girl behind’’ was initiated by the World Education, International (WEI) and funded by UK Department for International Development (DFID).
Started in September 2018, it would support interventions providing literacy, numeracy and skills relevant for life and work of marginalized adolescent girls in society.
It would also combine two mutually supportive tracks for highly marginalized girls, formal school and informal learning, to bring a holistic approach to their education and lower the barriers that they faced at the individual, community and school levels.
Under the project, a consortium led by WEI with its local partners, such as Afrikids, Regional Advisory Information and Network System, Pronet, Link Community Development, Prolink, Ghana Red Cross, Olinga Foundation and the International Child Development Programme, would work together to make sure every single child had access to a basic education.
They would specifically target areas of Ghana where high level of extreme poverty, with deep-seated traditional and social norms exist, resulting in negative impacts on women and girls who are highly vulnerable and marginalized due to factors, such as early marriage, pregnancies and disabilities.
Mrs Susan Adu- Aryee, Country Director of World Education Ghana, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said at least 20,000 girls between the ages of 10 to 19 years old would benefit, which would lift them up in society.
“We are also committed to partnering with government institutions such as the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Gender and Social Protection, Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and the National Board for Small Scale Industries to sustain the project,” She said.
She said close collaboration with the Girls Education Unit of the Ghana Education Service to develop basic training modules, teaching and learning materials to facilitate the adequate provision of support to marginalized girls, such as those with disabilities, were some of the strategies.
“Others were peer education modules involving adolescent girls and boys as allies, work with youth and adults male led community sensitization campaigns to promote positive behaviour change’’.
Mrs Adu-Aryee explained that the project would focus on reducing poverty in remote areas through farming subsidies, provision of school kits, to help families afford the actual costs of supporting girls’ education, while alleviating the burden of opportunity costs when they were enrolled.
Mrs Cathering Appiah-Pinkrah, a Director at the Ministry Of Education in charge of Pre-tertiary, called on the stakeholders to incorporate some of these strategies looking at areas that would benefit the girl child at the end of the project duration.
She urged the Community Based Organisation to come together and make a special advocacy to ensure that the disabilities in society were not abused.
She called on parents to send their girl child to school, saying, “Education is a shared responsibility”.
Miss Grace Louise, Education Adviser at DFID, acknowledged the contribution made by the stakeholders to ensure a holistic quality education for the marginalized girls in society.