National forum on girls’ education begins
A three-day national workshop aimed at meeting the challenges of girls’ education through networking, opened in Accra on Monday.
The forum, which is being attended by 236 Girl’s Education Officers from Regional, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Education offices across the country, was organized by the Girls’ Education Unit of the Ghana Education Service (GES) in partnership with Camfed Ghana, advocates for female education.
Mrs Matilda Bannerman-Mensah, GES Director of the Girls’ Education Unit in an address, said the event presents an excellent opportunity for all those who are working on the field to share ideas, talk about their successes and challenges and network for improved education for girls in the country.
Mrs Bannerman-Mensah said the issue of girls’ education has a cross sectoral dimension since “what keeps them away from school are socio-cultural and multi-faceted”.
She said addressing the issues appropriately would propel Ghana to meet her goal of bridging the gender gap in education in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
She said although a lot has been achieved over the years with collaborations from Agencies and Organisations such as the DFID, UNICEF, Action Aid, Plan Ghana, World University Services of Canada and other stakeholders a lot more remains to be achieved.
Mrs Bannerman-Mensah said Girls’ Education Officers are still confronted with challenges such as the lack of resources and funds to carry out their duties, while most girls still battle with inadequate facilities such as toilet facilities near classrooms to address their private needs.
She appealed to Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies and Directorate of Education to resource the Officers to enable them to achieve set targets.
Mrs Abigail Burgesson, Special Programmes Manager, African Women’s Development Fund, stressed on the need for aggressive networking among the Officers, existing institutions and the private sector organisations working to achieve the same results.
She also urged the Officers to be proactive in improving their knowledge on existing legislations, change their attitudes towards girls’ education, and be committed to their work.
Mr Burgesson tasked the Officers to move away from their traditional school level outreach programmes to tap into existing expertise and resources to make a meaningful headway in retaining more girls in school.
She urged the Officers to first empower themselves through the acquisition of knowledge and skills that would enable them to handle challenges such as teenage pregnancies.
She encouraged the Officers to also engage girls and their parents on the benefits of education so that girls who become pregnant do not necessarily drop out of school.
Source: GNA