Wa, July 14, GNA – Madam Hawa Daari, the Wa West District Girl Child Education Officer has indicated that the Back-to-school Campaign in the district is yielding positive results despite the myriad of setbacks impeding its effective implementation.
She said through the campaign, a number of school children, particularly girls at primary, Junior High and Senior High Schools who, hitherto, would have dropped out of school after the COVID-19 school closure, had returned to school.
Madam Daari said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Wa in response to the state of the girl-child education in the district amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
The UNICEF is providing financial support for the Back-to-school Campaign to ensure that all school children returned to school after schools in the country closed down for almost a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The campaign taskforce included traditional authorities, religious leaders, representatives of security agencies and the District Education Directorate among others.
Madam Daari noted that their checks revealed that most third year Junior High School students, particularly girls, were not in school after the COVID-19 break, but they were following up to ensure they returned to school.
Madam Daari said the taskforce intervened and ensured that all girls who wrote the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and gained admission into the SHS honoured their admissions.
“Some of the girls actually wrote the BECE with their babies and pregnancy, and a lot of them who had placement are going back to school.
“Even a few of them who were pregnant at the time, I followed up to the schools where they were placed and made an arrangement with the Headmasters of the various schools to enlist them when the second semester begins by which time they might have delivered ”, she explained.
She indicated that the COVID-19 school closure led some of the school children to learn a trade and refused to return to school, which she said the taskforce encouraged such children to take their apprenticeship very seriously.
“At the SHS level, we have about eight children going back to school, at the JHS, we have about 31 of them who I personally took to training centres”, the Girl Child Education Officer said.
She identified the reluctance of the traditional leaders to provide relevant information to the task force on issues relating to girls’ education in their communities for the necessary action to be taken as one of the impediments to the campaign.
She added that some Heads of schools also relaxed in reporting issues about their children’s attendance to school, which was also affecting the campaign.
“We cannot be everywhere all the time, so information link is one of our barriers”, Madam Daari said.
Other constraints, she identified, included resources, insecurity of the team members and minimal support from parents in getting their children back to school.
GNA