NGO expresses concern about pregnant students

Mr. Kwame Afram, Program Officer for Education of Action Aid Ghana, has expressed worry about the high number of Junior High School (JHS) students who were pregnant during the just ended Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in the Brong-Ahafo Region.

He said in the Asutifi district alone, 19 of the students were pregnant with protruding stomachs as they struggled to write the examination and seven were pregnant in the Kenyasi Mooho Circuit.

Mr. Afram expressed the concern at a career fair held at Dadiesoaba in Asutifi District to educate JHS students about professions and to interact with professionals towards the achievement of their goals in education.

The programme was attended by 140 JHS students from seven schools in the region.

Among the professionals the students interacted with were medical personnel, educationists, agriculturists and bankers.

He noted that some of the pregnant girls had to end their education at the JHS level as they would feel shy to go back to the classroom, whilst some parents would not be willing to take care of the babies to enable such girls to continue their education.

“The performance of the pregnant girls can be affected because of their conditions, which may not favour them to prepare adequately for the examinations,” he said.

Mr Afram called on Parent/Teacher Associations to adopt measures to curb the unfortunate situation and advised parents to be responsible and show interest in their children’s education.

Madam Yvonne Opoku Kwateng of the Ghana Education Service (GES), urged the students to concentrate on their studies so they could continue their education to a higher levels.

She advised them to allow their parents and teachers to guide them in choosing courses relating to their chosen professions, since if the right courses were not taken at the secondary level, some of them could drop out of school or would not be to realize their dreams.**