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Ace broadcaster and gender equality advocate, Josephine Oppong-Yeboah, has called on the government to deal with all obstacles that hinder girls’ education in the country.
She said even though Ghana has done well in increasing access and enrollment, there is a need to ensure that girls are retained in schools.
For her, early and forced marriages, pregnancy, poverty, and sexual harassment oftentimes force many girls to drop out of school before completing either Junior High or Senior High Schools in the country.
Ms. Oppong-Yeboah made the remarks in an interview with the media concerning the theme for the celebration of this year’s session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).
The annual UN Commission on the Status of Women meets in March each year to address the widespread inequalities, violence, and discrimination women continue to face, all around the world.
The 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Women started on March 6 and will end on March 17, 2023.
It is being celebrated on the theme: “Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls”.
Ms Oppong-Yeboah who is attending this year’s event in New York also called for a collaborative approach from all stakeholders towards the promotion of girls’ education in the country.
“We need to find ways of ensuring that girls attend school, stay, and perform well,” she said, adding that “We cannot develop as a nation if we do not address all the obstacles affecting girls’ education in the country.”
She explained that tackling endemic problems affecting girls’ education requires innovative solutions, urging all stakeholders to play their roles as expected in helping to promote girls’ education in the country.
Ms. Oppong-Yeboah said although UNESCO’s 2020 Gender Report indicates that girls’ enrollment in school has increased steadily over time, there is still great gender disparity in higher levels of education, especially in subjects related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
She was of the view that access is only the first step towards transforming gender structures in the formal education system in the country, and that “we need to improve retention and performance.”
For her, “there is a huge negative change in gender parity moving from secondary to tertiary enrollment.”
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