7,575 girls drop out of school over pregnancy

National data collected by EMIS of the Ministry of Education indicate that 7,575 girls in basic and senior high schools truncated their education due to unplanned pregnancy.

The 2016/2017 academic year figure shows that 1,444 girls in the primary dropped out of school as a result of pregnancy whilst 5,254 and 877 in the Junior High Schools (JHSs) and Senior High Schools (SHSs) respectively, were not spared from the consequences of unprotected sex.

These alarming figures, according to Margaret-Nsiah Asamoah, Tema Metro Director of Education, must be of concern to parents and society.

The continuous high rate of teenage pregnancy poses a security threat to the nation in that, more of the young mothers, who are unemployed, would add to the unemployed youthful population more children whose upkeep would stretch the resources of the state.

Mrs Asamoah observed that girls, some as young as 10, drop out of school yearly, because of pregnancy “and I am troubled because our daughters, whom we, as parents, call our children, will also be giving birth to their own children when they are still children.”

The causes of the teenage pregnancy among the young female pupils are legion and in her view, the rules to discipline children to be moral are fairly lax, and so today’s children have the audacity to bend moral values.

Some parents, whose views awakenewsonline sought on the moral decadence, did not shy blaming parents for their irresponsibility.

They were of the view that society should revisit the discipline in the generation before today’s to correct the moral ills in the country.

That way, children would hug chastity, they said.