Konkomba parents urged to stop forcing girls into early marriage

Sibi (V/), Aug. 31, GNA - Mrs Stella Korkor Adjumah, Nkwanta North District Girl Child Education Officer of the Ghana Education Service (GES), at the weekend appealed to parents in Konkomba to reform the culture of forcing young girls into early marriage.

She made the appeal in a community sensitization programme on girls' education at Sibi and Kabre-Akura in the Nkwanta North district on Tuesday.

Mrs Adjumah said the practice had forced many girls into early marriages and kept them out of school. She cited an instance in which a mother used a knife to destroy her class two daughter's school uniform so as to force her into marriage.

She said it was unfair for parents to behave that way towards their own children in the name of culture.

Mrs Adjumah warned that the laws of Ghana would no longer allow parents to behave in a way that tended to jeopardize the future of their daughters.

Ms Comfort Kojo, a female student of the University of Development Studies, a role model and facilitator in the area, said the Konkomba woman was lagging behind in terms of education in the country and appealed to parents to allow their daughters to have formal education to also reap its benefits.

Ubori Laliri Gmanja II, Chief of Sibi Hilltop, said most Konkomba parents withdrew their daughters from school after they had completed primary education as a way of preventing them from continuing their education outside their communities.

He, therefore, appealed to the GES to provide the community with a Junior High School.

Ubori Laliri Gmanja II assured that he and his people would modify cultural practices that tended to prevent their girls from having formal education.