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More female students are dropping out of school in the South Tongu District of the Volta Region, Mr Moses Kakaw, the District Director of Social Welfare, disclosed on Tuesday.

Mr Kakaw who made this disclosure to the Ghana News Agency,  did not support his statement readily with statistics, but said the trend was obvious, based on the mounting recorded cases of teenage pregnancies and abuses on girls his office had  received.  

He spoke in connection with the inauguration of a task force in the District by “Seek to Save” Foundation, a Ho based non-governmental organisation, (NGO) to protect children against forced and child marriages.

The project, with funding from UNICEF, is being implemented in the Akatsi-South, Akatsi- North and Central-Tongu districts of the Volta Region.

Mr Kakaw said the situation of child marriages was almost out of control, with being a “child parent” gradually becoming a fashion.

Madam Commend Akpeloo, Executive Director of Seek to Save Foundation, said it was sickening, seeing “child parents” in communities across river banks all over the district,  and urged the task force to cause the arrest of parents who gave out under-aged  children for marriage.

She asked members of the task force to advocate for positive behaviour change that would protect children from violence, abuse and exploitation.

Madam Lena Alai, Volta Regional Director of the Department of Women, in a presentation at a similar forum at Ave-Dakpa in the Akatsi-North District, said traditional and religious beliefs and poverty continued to fuel the practice of early and child marriages.

She said if the current trend continued, a total of  407,000 of young girls born  between 2005 and 2010 would be married or be in union before age 18 by 2030.

Mr Edwin Gamadeku, Volta Regional Director of the Department of Children, asked parents to always seek the interest of children first.