Gomoa West Directorate of Education reduces teenage pregnancy

The Gomoa West District Directorate of Education has taken measures to reduce teenage pregnancy in the district and these measures are yielding good results.

The Directorate has trained more Guidance and Counseling Coordinators for basic schools, and is engaging female role models to visit the schools and talk to the girls on why they should abstain from pre-marital sex.

Addressing the Gomoa West District Assembly Sub-Committee on Education at Apam, Madam Augusta Akyaa Sarpong, the District Director of Education, said the measures had been successful in reducing teenage pregnancy considerably.

She said pregnant girls who wrote the 2012 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) had decreased from 35 in 2011 to 11.

Madam Sarpong commended the Assembly on efforts it was making to improve education in the district, which include sponsoring mock examinations, Best Teacher Awards and provision of education infrastructure.

She appealed to parents to play their roles by providing their daughters with their needs such as underwear, sanitary pads and spending money; to reduce the incidence of the girls being lured by men who provide them with such things.

She said the Directorate had re-introduced “silence hour” in schools about an hour before classes start and about two hours after classes to inculcate the habit of reading in the pupils.

Mad Sarpong said the inability of students to read and understand questions accounted for the high number of failures in examinations.

She said the Directorate had set up teams comprising examiners from Senior High Schools, the staff of the District Directorate and district staff of the Ghana National Association of Teachers, that go round schools to do remedial teaching.

Mad Sarpong said the Directorate was also encouraging the formation of reading and debate clubs in the schools.

She said the Directorate was planning to organize reading competitions among schools, and have directed the schools to organize monthly class examinations and submit a copy of the results to the Directorate.**