Household chores affecting girls education in Northern Ghana – DCE
Mr Clement Benin, Lambussie-Karni District Chief Executive, has said the education of the girl child would continue to retrogress in Northern Ghana if the culture of allocating all household chores to female children continues.
He said traditional beliefs in the northern part of the country favoured the male child in terms of undertaking household chores, thereby, putting the entire burden on the female child.
This, he said, was affecting their education as they had little or no time to do their studies as compared to their male counterparts.
Mr Benin stated this in a speech read on his behalf during the launch of a girls’ education programme by Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) a non- governmental organization at Lambussie.
Mr. Benin said the consequence of these traditional beliefs coupled with lack of family life education was the poor results often recorded in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
He said the Lambussie-Karni District placed 160th position out of the then 170 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in the BECE with only 23.47% qualifying to enter Senior High Schools.
Mr. Benin said, however, all was not lost yet considering the efforts being made by the Government and other development partners such as CAMFED to promote girl child education in the District.
He said the Assembly spends about 60% of its revenue annually on education to complement the Government’s effort in making education more accessible to all children in the area.
He said the Assembly was also considering increasing its sponsorship package for female teacher trainees in order to increase their presence in schools to inspire the girl child.
Mr. Cyril Yabepone, the Education Programme Officer of CAMFED, said the programme was to support girls whose parents could not genuinely afford their education expenses.
He said the programme is being implemented in the Lambussie-Karni, Wa West and Sissala East Districts as well as Bawku West and Kpandai Districts in the Upper East and Northern Regions, respectively.
Mr. Yabepone said District Education Committees have been inaugurated in all the beneficiary districts to provide support to the implementation of the programme by working closely with all other stakeholders of education in order to boost girls’ education in their districts.
He said the Committees would also be playing a critical role in the selection of needy girls for the bursary programme.
Source: GNA