Mion records worrying cases of teenage pregnancy
Increasing cases of teenage pregnancy among girls in basic schools in the Mion District in the Northern Region have raised concerns for stakeholders in education who are battling to find a solution to the problem.
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Some of the pregnant girls in the district are pupils in primary four, five and six with majority of them being Junior High School (JHS) pupils which has prompted the district education directorate to embark on a vigorous community sensitisation programme to combat the menace.
At a stakeholders’ meeting organised by the Ghana Developing Communities Association Empowerment for Life (GDCA-E4L), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), to find a solution to the issue, the Mion District Education Director, Mrs Yakubu Balchisu, said some of the impregnated girls were pupils in primary three.
Stakeholders meeting
The stakeholders’ meeting was attended by parents, teachers, staff from the educational directorate, religious leaders, opinion leaders and political activists.
She explained that the district education directorate was thrown into a state of shock in the 2015-2016 academic year, when 27 girls were impregnated in schools in the district.
She said, for instance, in the 2013- 2014 academic year, 21 pupils were impregnated, and indicated that although the figure dropped to 18 in the 2014-2015 academic year, it was still worrying.
According to Mrs Balchisu, since the beginning of this year, four girls in primary three, four, five and six, had become pregnant in addition to six students in JHS one and 12 and five students in JHS two and three respectively.
Pregnant BECE candidates
She said an additional six cases of teenage pregnancy were recorded among this year's Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates, thus, bringing the number of impregnated girls to 33 in the district as of the third quarter of this year.
She, however, explained that out of the six pregnant girls, only four took part in the examination.
At the meeting, some of the angry parents who spoke to the Daily Graphic, said their children had refused to heed to their advice.
Some, however, called on the government to intervene in the matter by charging law enforcement agencies in the area to deal with the perpetrators and parents who forced their children in child marriage as a step to address the issue.