Support teenage girls to go back to school after delivery – ICDP
Parents have been advised to support their children to return to informal or formal school system after delivery to empower them economically.
That, according to Ms Joyce Larnyoh, the Country Director of International Child Development Programme (ICDP), would restore the lost confidence in the girls and enable them make up for the lost time in the learning system.
Ms Larnyoh in an interview with the Ghanaian Times bemoaned the incessant increase in teenage pregnancy cases and noted that it was having a toll on education and the future of the girls especially those in the rural communities.
She stated that her outfit in collaboration withUKaid, World Education and Complementary Education Agency (CEA) on September 9 joined the rest of the world to celebrate International Literacy Day.
The day, according to her, set aside by UNESCO was celebrated every September 8 to advance the literacy agenda towards a more literate and sustainable society.
She urged parents and guardians, to support their children to return to the formal school system after delivery or learn a vocational skill to empower them economically to help reduce poverty and vulnerability.
The Complementary Education Agency Director at the Akuapim South District, MrSamuel Seidu, underscored the need to equip the less privileged with technical and vocational skills to enable them to contribute to the development of the society.
He said despite progress made, literacy challenges persisted with 771 million illiterate people around the world, of which most of them were women, who still lacked basic reading and writing skills.
For him, the issue of literacy remained a “red hot bottom switch” that needed special attention, since the development of every nation was hinged on education.
“Development runs on the wheels of literate citizens. The multiplying effects of literacy on the individual, the nation and the world are incalculable and the value-addition that education bears on nation’s development cannot be under-emphasised,” he said.
“Government is shifting attention to TVET to empower the youth with practical skills because that is where the job market has shifted to. So do not shun your teenage pregnant children but rather support them to go back to school to do skills training,” she added.
He advised parents to constantly engage their children especially the girls and provide them with basic necessities which would prevent them from indulging in transactional sex.
MrSeidu said aside the re-entry policy being implemented by the GES to help teenage mothers to return to the formal school system, Technical, Vocational Education and Training was a vibrant alternative that parents could enroll their teenage mothers to acquire skills.
BY BENEDICTA GYIMAAH FOLLEY
