We are not aware teachers are impregnating school girls - GES PRO

The Ghana Education Service (GES) says it is unaware teachers are impregnating their pupils as reported by a section of the media stating most cases turn out to be untrue.

Public Relations Officer of the GES Rev Jonathan Bettey said the headquarters has not received any such reports and figures adding that they only heard of the reports in the media.

He however stated that they have punitive ways of sanctioning teachers who engage in such acts including such teachers transferred to other areas.

“The Headquarters has not received any such reports and figures. We only heard of them in the media. It is not true that teachers are sleeping with school children. We have punitive ways of sanctioning teachers who engage in such acts. Such teachers are mostly transferred”. He disclosed on Kumasi-based Ultimate FM.

But Bright Appiah of Child Rights International underscored the need for pragmatic measures to put in place by stakeholders in dealing with the issue and urged the GES to be proactive.

“We need to ensure that we put in place certain measures to deal with these issues. My worry is about why it is only about teachers. The Ghana Education Service must be very proactive”, he urged.

There is a report that Teachers in the Central Region have been named among the top groups of people who impregnated teenage girls in the area in 2016. They are reported to have impregnated 301 of the 12,048 pregnant young girls in the region in 2016.

Drivers, small-scale miners, and small-scale farmers are also among the top culprits responsible for teenage pregnancy in the region.

This was revealed at the 2016 Ghana Health Service (GHS) performance review event held at the University of Cape Coast.

Out of the 12,048 young girls who got pregnant in the region, small-scale farmers were responsible for 986 (19.3 percent) of them, while drivers were responsible for 676 (13.2 percent).

Small scale miners were responsible for 397 (7.8 percent) of those pregnancies, while unemployed men were responsible for 353 (6.9 percent).

Primary and secondary school teachers followed with 301 pregnancies, representing 5.9 percent of all teenage pregnancies in the Central Region in 2016.