The northern region has recorded about 8,274 teenage pregnancies in 2021. The figure is only that of those who visited the hospitals for Antenatal Care (ANC) during the period. This number is an increment from 2019 and 2020 when the region recorded 5,904 and 6,144 cases respectively.
Madam Linda Amoah, the Northern Regional Girl Child Education Officer at the Ghana Education Service disclosed this in an exclusive interview with Mohammed Gadafi, correspondent of THE CUSTODIAN in the northern region.
In five years, she added data from the Ministry of Health shows the northern region has recorded a total number of 43,533 teenage girls being pregnant.
She noted “These are figures of those who have gone for antenatal but for those who haven’t gone for antenatal, you can imagine the number if we were to add them to this.”
She further lamented, “If all these children are put together and we ask them to all go and sit in the house, deliver and that ends it, like we use to do in the past, where do you think we’re going? We will harvest more illiterates than literates and if most of our women are illiterates then productivity will be affected”.
Basic school prevalence
The situation according to Madam Linda has narrowed down to the primary and junior high schools level. 580 pregnant cases were recorded at the lower primary and 1,059 cases recorded at the upper primary level across ten districts in the northern region.
“My dear brothers and sisters, this is an alarming situation we’re talking about. And we talk of HIV and other infections like Covid-19, this is even more than Covid-19. If we can report pregnant cases at the lower primary up to 580, then we need to sit up” she implored.
In view of the alarming situation, the Girl Child Education Officer said it is time for parents, teachers and everybody into education sit up and “See what we can actually do to help these girls either not to become pregnant, to know from their left to right; to know their rights, what they are supposed to do and what they are not supposed to do.”
Back to School policy
Highlighting on the reentering or back to school policy, Madam Linda indicated victims have the liberty to stay in school whilst the pregnancy develop until the period when she is due for delivery that she can apply for a three month leave.
She explained the reentering policy has come out with measures as to what the girl child as and the parent should do at the school level till the girl gives birth and return to school.
She pointed out the constitution of Ghana and its subsidiary laws has hammered on all inclusive education for children for a long time, emphasizing every child under the 1992 constitution has that fundamental right to equal educational opportunities.
“It also mandates the state to ensure that every child of school going age completes a minimum of basic education. Article 25(1) provides that all persons shall have the right to equal educational opportunities and facilities and with a view to achieving the full realization of that right.”
The children’s Act 1998, (Act 560) also specifies that no person shall deprive a child access to education, immunization, adequate diet, clothing, shelter, medical attention or any other thing requires for their development.
Additionally, the national gender policy adopted in 2015 strategically provides the enforcement of reentry policy for pregnant school girls to enable them continue their education after delivery.
According to Madam Linda Amoah, a research has established that pregnancy is not a sickness and therefore should not be a tool for one to drop out of school.
“And we have realized that if we give them the opportunity; one, the child has learnt her lessons therefore she would sit up and concentrate better than before and grow up to become somebody that none of us thought she could’ve been – we have them now, we have doctors, lawyers, we have auditors; girls that we are able to send back to school after delivery” she revealed.
