Pregnant school girls should be punished – Educationist
Madam Bernadette Banongwie, a Deputy Director of Education, has suggested that basic school girls who get pregnant should be punished severely to serve as deterrent to their peers.
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She said the government was investing so much in education of the girl- child and that any girl who decided to waste such resources through loose morals should be made to re-pay such investment.
Madam Banongwie who made the statement during the inauguration of Girl Clubs Executives at Nadowli in the Nadowli-Kaleo District of the Upper West Region, said any girl who got pregnant not through rape did it with consent and should therefore be punished.
The programme, which was under the theme: “Girls Education: Moving from Enrolment to Retention and Achievement,” is being sponsored by the Global Partnership for Educational Grants.
Madam Banongwie, who is Head of the Inspectorate Division at the GES Headquarters, said globally one out of every three girls were denied education by the daily realities of poverty, violence, cultural practices and discrimination while 50 percent of girls from poor countries did not attend school.
She said when it came to choice between girls and boys for higher education the boy was often preferred over the girl with the reason that the boy would remain a member of the family while the girl would marry into a different family.
Mad Banongwie said despite vigorous sensitization by the GES, non-governmental organisations and religious bodies on the need for girl child education, ill practices such as elopement, teenage pregnancy and early marriage persisted in the district.
Mad Anacleta Naab, Regional Girl Child Education Officer, advised the girls to eschew sexual immorality and concentrate on their studies in order to become successful in future.
