Mankessim (C/R), Feb 26, GNA – Star Ghana Foundation, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) into the promotion of active citizenship for change has called on Stakeholders to intensify efforts to get young mothers to get back to school to continue their education.
This it said would help shape their future, cut the chain of school drop-outs, help reduce the menace of abject poverty and most importantly complement Government’s efforts in educating greater percentage of the population for accelerated development.
In an interview with the GNA, Mrs Eunice Rachael Agbenyadzi, the programmes Manager of Star Ghana Foundation, said more than 3,200 girls got pregnant between January and May 2020, and a larger section of the cases were as a result of the emergence of COVID-19 restrictions.
“We want to track, identify and give the needed support to such girls to go back to their respective classrooms especially because two thirds of all drop out cases are girls”, she noted.
She said it had become critical to intensify public education and sensitization to get all to be in the known of the existence of the re-entry policy for pregnant girls and young mothers.
When contacted on the essence of the re-entry policy, Mr. Kofi Asare, Executive Director of Africa Education Watch also an NGO and a strategic partner to Star Ghana Foundation, noted that the policy would help achieve an all-inclusive and equitable quality education.
Again, he said it was a good step towards poverty reduction and economic empowerment which would help improve the quality of Ghana’s human capital.
Speaking on some challenges of re-entry for young mothers, Mr. Asare said poverty, lack of information on re-entry and stigmatization by peers, teachers and even head teachers were the lead associated challenges.
On what has been done to curtail the menace of teen pregnancies, Mrs. Julia Damale, the Girl Child Coordinator in the Mfantseman Municipality, said the Ghana Education Service (GES) has been constantly sensitizing parents and students on the need to avoid the tradition of teenage motherhood in the area.
“We have distributed books, documents to be discussed in class, trained professionals to engage students in guidance and counselling sessions, taken data for further sensitization”, she added.
GNA