Advertisement

Girls education

Teachers attend workshop to discuss challenges to girls’ education

Stakeholders engaged in the development of education have been urged to support government’s efforts to initiate proactive measures to help clear all bottlenecks that prevent girls from pursuing education to the highest level.

The President of the Africa Women in Education (AWEN), Madam Helena Awurusa, said although girls stood the chance of pursuing education to the highest level when given equal opportunities like boys, certain cultural and societal norms made it extremely difficult for the girls to have the time and opportunity to study to the highest level.

She mentioned cultural beliefs which saw girls as belonging to the kitchen, engaging girls in petty trading, dumping of household chores on girls, teenage pregnancy and others, as debilitating factors inhibiting the education of girls in the country.

Training workshop

Mrs Awurusa made these known at the closing session of a two-day training workshop for some selected teachers from the Ashanti region in Kumasi.

The workshop dubbed “Nkabom Gender Project” was organised by the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) in collaboration with the Canadian Teachers Federation (CTF) with the aim of ensuring gender parity between girls and boys at the highest level of the nation’s education.

Other aims of the project include the engagement of communities, parents and other stakeholders in education to find a lasting solution to challenges that prevent girls from pursuing education to the highest level.

Established two years ago, the Nkabom Gender Project had trained some teachers in the Upper West, Upper East, Northern, Brong Ahafo, Eastern, Volta and this time in the Ashanti Region.

In attendance at the Kumasi training were some selected teachers from the Atwima Nwabiagya District of the Ashanti Region.

Unfair treatment

Madam Awurusa lamented that some parents would let their daughters go round selling things instead of being in school and also sacrifice girls’ education for boys in times of financial challenges among others.

She called on parents to make sure boys also took part in household chores instead of leaving it to girls alone while the boys watched television or played football.

Madam Awurusa was not happy with the politicisation of the provision of allowance to teachers in deprived areas, saying, though that message was on the lips of most politicians every campaign session, they refused to implement it.

Appeal to GES

The Ashanti Regional Secretary of GNAT, Mr Charles Kofi Adum-Nti Achamfour, appealed to the Ghana Education Service (GES), to as a matter of urgency, take the issue of teacher retraining and upgrading of skills, very serious since that was the only way they could sharpen their skills and update their knowledge.

He lamented that although it was the responsibility of the GES as an employer, to retrain and upgrade the teaching skills and knowhow of its staff, labour unions were sometimes forced to do so due to GES’ refusal to live to expectation.

He urged the participants to put the skills acquired to work so that they could impact positively on the lives of the pupils they teach, as well as their families and the society in general.

He commended the Canadian Teachers Federation (CTF) for its regular support to GNAT and for supporting education development in the country and pledged that the GNAT would continue to deepen the ties between it and the CTF.

Connect With Us : 0242202447 | 0551484843 | 0266361755 | 059 199 7513 |