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Stakeholders in education have been urged to ensure that children, especially girls, return to school when it reopens in January.

The Convener of Girls Education Network (GEN), Mrs Benedicta Tenni Seidu, who made the call said, the Ghana Education Service (GES) had put in place comprehensive measures to make the environment safe for teaching and learning, even in the era of coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Mrs Seidu said this last Friday at an event to commemorate this year’s International Day of the Girl (IDG) in Adenta-Sakora in the La Nkwantanang-Madina Municipality of the Greater Accra Region.

The day which is marked on October 11 every year was on the theme, “My voice, our equal future”, with a call on girls to speak on the challenges affecting them and the society to listen to them to give them a desired future.

GEN is an umbrella body of individual organisations from the public and private sectors working in the areas of girls’ education across the country.

It is aimed at advocating and pushing for the advancement of girls’ education across the country.

The event brought together boys and girls drawn from the WASS Experimental Junior High school (JHS).
She said the network had noticed that girls were faced with a lot of challenges, which include adolescent pregnancy, dropout among girls, late and low-enrolment.

According to Mrs Seidu the network had noticed that most girls living in Adenta-Sakora were house helps and that, their house chores and treatment they encounter affect their schooling.

She indicated that the tendency for a child not to return to school after a long stay at home was high, and there was the need to give them the required guidance and encouragement for them to return to school.

“Therefore, on the occasion of this year’s International Day of the Girl, we from GEN want to remind every resident of Adenta-Sakora, be you a parent, guardian, chief, pastor, imam, brother, sister, father, mother or cousin, that soon schools will resume in full session; GES has so far done everything necessary to remove many of the barriers that usually keep our children out of school, it is now our duty therefore, to ensure that the children return to school in January 2021,” she said.

She, therefore, charged the students, especially the boys to ensure girls return to school in January.
The students and parents were later put into groups and were educated on teenage pregnancy and re-entry, emerging social media issues, menstrual hygiene, and mentoring.