The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, in collaboration with Plan Ghana, has marked the 38th celebration of the African Union Day of the African Child in Accra.
The theme for the celebration was, �A child-friendly, qualitative, free and compulsory education for all children in Africa�.
The occasion was attended by the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, the Minister of Communication, Mr Mahama Ayariga, Mad Susan Gondi, the UNICEF country representative, and a representative of Plan Ghana and other dignitaries.
Addressing the ceremony, Nana Oye said on June 16, 1976, thousands of black schoolchildren from Soweto in South Africa went on a peaceful protest against inferior education and demanded their right to be taught in their native language.
She said due to the uprising, the African Union set the day aside in remembrance of the schoolchildren and what they stood and fought for.
According to her, the Day of the African Child presented an invaluable opportunity for all concerned groups on children�s rights, including the government, non-governmental organisations and international bodies, to reflect on issues affecting children in Africa.
AU Report on state of Africa�s children
Nana Oye said the African Union Report on the state of Africa�s children revealed that education in most African countries was characterised by poor completion and high withdrawal rates, poor indicators of secondary education and poor continental commitments to pre-primary education.
According to the report, children in Africa, especially those from poor households, were significantly still being excluded from primary and secondary education.
��Every child has a right to free primary education, no matter their station in life, be they poor or rich, in the majority or minority, able-bodied or disabled,� she said.
The Minister of Communication, Mr Mahama Ayariga, who chaired the function, said the government had made provision for districts assemblies to give grants to cater for the welfare of children in schools.
He observed that children from private schools did well academically because of effective supervision by management of those schools and such level of supervision was lacking in the public schools. He added that the lack of effective supervision led to poor performance by children from such schools.
He said to ensure qualitative education, it was important that early childhood education, which was a major component of education, was represented on the national, regional and district Early Childhood Care Development Committees.
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