ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF GIRLS IMPROVE... In Karaga, Gushiegu districts (NOV 11, PAGE 11)

ACADEMIC performance of girls in the Karaga and Gushiegu districts of the Northern Region has improved significantly over the past one year.
This year, for instance, 63.6 per cent of girls who took part in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in the Karaga District scored between aggregate 6 and 30 as against 21.2 per cent of girls recorded in 2008.
Additionally, a girl, Abdulai Asana of the Gushiegu Local Authority Junior High School (JHS), had aggregate 15 in this year’s BECE; and that is said to be the highest recorded among girls in recent times in the area.
These achievements were made possible through the introduction of the IBIS/Ghana Education Service (GES) Girls’ Education Clinic. The programme started in 2008 with 115 girls.
The Karaga and Gushiegu District Girls Education Officers, Madam Theresa Adoore and Madam Nafisa Adam respectively, who made these known at this year’s IBIS/GES Girls’ Education Clinic in Tamale, said that a lot had been achieved through the clinic.
They attributed the success story of the girls in their respective districts to a reduction in teenage pregnancy and early marriage among them. Intensive sensitisation of opinion leaders and parents to the need to support efforts at increasing enrolment and retention among the girls also contributed to the achievement of that feat, he added. This year’s clinic was attended by 115 girls.
The officers indicated that mothers and girls now reported cases of teenage pregnancy and sexual harassment to the GES officials, who counselled them.
“Our girls are now assuming leadership roles as they have overcome shyness; enrolment and retention have increased since the introduction of the Clinic”, they further explained.
Representatives of the other participating districts in the Northern Region namely; Bole, Sawla-Tuna-Kalba, East Gonja, Kpandai, as well as Tano and Asunafo South in the Brong Ahafo Region have all commended IBIS and its partners for introducing the clinic.
They stated, for instance, that the girls were able to talk to their peers to avoid immoral acts, thereby reducing teenage pregnancy and the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) among them.
They also observed that the girls, through the clinic, had learnt etiquette, time management, humility, assertiveness and organisational skills, among other things.
The Programme Director of the Education for Empowerment Programme of IBIS, Mr Zakaria Sulemana, noted that the clinic aimed, among other objectives, at increasing school survival and achievement rates among JHS girls, by giving them the opportunity to develop “the virtues of self-confidence and assertiveness through socialisation and interaction” with their peers.
According to him, his outfit was looking for innovative strategies to encourage girls to stay in school and become responsible adults in the future.
“For all these good things to happen, you have to be open-minded, take part in all activities and be prepared to share with your friends”, Mr Sulemana advised the girls.