Rural communities urged to use education to break poverty

Ekumfi Narkwa (C/R), Feb. 16, GNA - The Mfantseman District Director of Education, Mrs Matilda Bannerman-Mensah, has said that the vicious poverty circle in some rural communities would continue to exist if the people do not change their mindset about education.

Addressing a meeting of the Ekumfi Narkwa community, Mrs Bannerman-Mensah said it was only education that could break the poverty circle.

The meeting was convened at the instance of the director to explore means of curbing teenage pregnancy in the town.

This followed a report to the director that seven pupils of the local Methodist Primary and JSS were pregnant.

Two of the expectant teenage-mothers are in primary three, one in primary five, three in JSS two and the other one in JSS three. Incidentally one of the primary three girls was impregnated by a boy in primary four.

Mrs Bannerman-Mensah did not take the situation kindly and cautioned parents to see their children as their greatest asset and put in every effort to make them well educated and responsible people who could help them to come out of poverty.

"What future will a child whose mother is in Primary three and the father in Primary four have?" The director asked.

Miss Vivian Etroo, Assistant Director in charge of supervision, appealed to chiefs to enact by-laws to protect the children. At another meeting with Miss Julia Damalie, Mfantseman District Girl-Child Education Officer, it came to light that during the third term vacation the children migrated to Half Assini in the Western Region to do manual work to make money to support their education and that was the time most of the got impregnated.

The parents of some of the pregnant girls assured Miss Damalie that they would take care of the baby to allow the mothers to go back to school. 16 Feb. 05