Education of the Girl-Child, Key to Development - Baiden-Amissah

from All Africa

Ghanaian Chronicle (Accra)

NEWS

By Augustina Akwei & Jill Patterson

The Deputy Minister for Education Youth and Sports, Mrs. Baiden Amissah has emphasized the need for Action Aid International Ghana (AAIG) students to play an active role in seeking and acquiring knowledge in education to enable them take leadership roles towards the development of the nation.

"Education, it is believed, is empowerment therefore educating girls is a step towards eliminating poverty, advancing human development and stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS and more negative human development behavior," she stressed.

She noted that as the country makes her 50th milestone, it is important that women take their positions in society seriously to exhibit leadership qualities in the county.


She said focusing on girls' education is working towards a fully nurtured woman for the family, community and nation at large.

The Deputy minister said this during the opening ceremony of an eight-day camp organized by the Girls Education Unit (GEU) in collaboration with AAIG on the theme "Empowering girls through Education for National Development: enhancing women in leadership.

She said the objective of the camp was to create the platform for girls to meet and share experiences, learn from each other to contribute greatly to the development of the child as well as creating avenues for the child to acquire leadership qualities.

"My dear girls, this is to draw your attention to the fact that, as you go through your education, you are being provided with the basic knowledge and skills that would help you improve your health and livelihood and also empower you to take your rightful place in society and the national development process," she noted

She urged the students to participate actively and to learn from various resource persons that they might encounter during their study

The Country Director of Plan Ghana, an international NGO Douglas Titiabi added that the camp would enhance their capacity to assist each other during the learning process.

According to her, Plan Ghana has instituted many programms that focused on girls and one of such programm is a scholarship scheme for girls to continue their basic education to tertiary level and said organization is currently supporting 860 girls at secondary schools and 54 at vocational schools.

"The tertiary scheme begins this September and selection of beneficiaries is in progress and we are convinced that the camp would serve as a platform for girls to get right exposure to enhance their self esteem and expand their horizons beyond their immediate environment," she added.

On her part, Adwoa Kwateng-Kluvitse Country Director, Action Aid Ghana said educating the girl-child was of major concern to all those who were interested in developing the total human resource of the nation and added that the strategy of AAIG has been to work in partnership with such stakeholders in government, other non-governmental institutions and corporate bodies to ensure that girls avail themselves of the education.

"This year there is a greater realization of this collaboration as the Camp with GEU and Action Aid Ghana has taken on a wider scope in addition to participants from AAIG, there are a number of girls from Plan Ghana programme in the Central Region. with others from our sister-AANigeria programme participating," she mentioned

"The camp is aimed at bringing together girls from deprived and distressed communities and to expose them to greater opportunities,"she added She called on government and relevant Ministries to ensure the implementation of existing policies in order to provide girls with the necessary conducive atmosphere to be able to stay in school and study

"It is towards this end that we can work consciously towards attaining the Millennium Development Goals of gender parity in education", she urged