Heads of vocational institutions and artisanal groups have been charged to educate the youth on the importance of skills training to facilitate national development.

Mr David Allan Paintsil, the Central Regional focal person of the United Nations and Populations Fund(UNFPA), who made the call, said the education would change the bad perception people have about skills training.

This would promote the development of young persons, especially the poor, under-privileged, distressed and marginalised in society.

He was speaking at a meeting with heads of vocational institutions and artisanal groups on ‘sexual and Reproductive Health and child marriage’ organized jointly by the Department of Gender and the Central Regional Coordinating Council (CRCC) with funds from the UNFPA.

Mr Paintsil, who is also an Assistant Director at the RCC, urged the participants to collaborate with stakeholders in the fight against Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) and child marriages in the community.

Mr Paintsil emphasized that parents should take charge and address issues confronting children, leading to teenage pregnancies which were destroying their future.

Mrs Thywil Eyra Kpe, the Central Regional Director of the Department of Gender, underlining the causes of SGBV, said low knowledge on personal and collective rights, low level of education, harmful cultural practices and many others were exposing and influencing the rise of teenage pregnancies in many communities,

She urged participants to get the youth informed about the consequences of SGBV and its effects to enable them to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancies.

The Regional Director explained that truancy and school drop-out stigmatization by society, divorces and separation and break down of family system were effects of SGBV that tended to influence and destroy the future of young persons.

On health implications of SGBV, Mrs Kpe said unwanted pregnancies, obstetric fistula, maternal morbidity and mortality, unsafe abortion and sexual dysfunction were some of the results.

She encouraged parents to report perpetrators of SGBV to the police for the necessary action to be taken to serve as a deterrent to other perpetrators.

She called on all advocacy groups to liaise with stakeholders for effective community involvements and increased advocacy programmes to help support the fight against SGBV and child marriages.

Mr Ishmael Arthur, the Principal of Asuasi Technical Institute, said irresponsible parenting was leading to an increase in teenage pregnancies and charged parents to make necessary efforts to provide the needs of their children.