Saltpond (C/R), May 10, GNA - Teenage pregnancy continues to be a major problem facing adolescents in Mfantseman and Gomoa Districts despite some measures put in place to curb it. Investigations conducted by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) into the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) conducted about a fortnight ago indicated that 28 girls in Mfantseman, who registered for the examination did not write it because they were pregnant.

Three of the six girls who gathered courage to write the examination brought forth during the process. Both the District Chief Executive, Mr Robert Quainoo-Arthur and the District Director of Education, Miss Vivian Etroo, who spoke to the GNA expressed disappointment about the situation and blamed it on lack of parental control.

Mr Quainoo-Arthur attributed the problem to a break-down in "our extended family system which has made others not to care to correct children of other family members when they find them going astray."

Miss Etroo said, a "time with grandma," a programme introduced by Ghana Health Service to make adolescents to seek guidance from selected mentors and Plan Ghana's camp meetings for girls and other programmes could not turn the tide. "I thought my presence in the district as a director of education will make girls see me as a role model and aspire to higher academic laurels", Miss Etroo stated. The situation was not different in Gomoa whose director of education is also a woman.

Efforts made by GNA to get the number of girls who did not write the exams failed as the officers of the district directorate were evasive and refused to co-operate with the reporter, who had earlier exposed the zero per cent score for 15 JSS students in the district. A source indicated that the number of the pregnant girls were higher than that of Mfantseman. 10 May 07