The Community Development Alliance (CDA), a Non-governmental Organisation (NGO), has launched a project to help bridge the educational access gap between girls and boys, particularly at the rural level.
It said the girls in rural communities had been left out of education due to some socio-cultural barriers.
The three-year project was implemented by the CDA, with financial support from UK Foreign Commonwealth Development Office through STAR-Ghana.
The project, dubbed “Let Girls Learn: End Child Marriage” was to benefit about 500 out-of-school girls in 30 communities in the Wa West, Wa East and Sissala West Districts.
Speaking at the launch of the Project in Wa on Wednesday, the Executive Director of CDA, Mr Salifu Issifu Kanton, noted that the project was aimed at getting girls of school-going age who were out of school back to school.
He indicated that the project was also in response to efforts in addressing issues that had impacted women and girls and also undermined the girls’ rights to access education.
Mr Kanton, therefore, observed that girls’ access to quality basic education was the only true means of eliminating poverty in the Upper West Region.
“We are also working with the local authorities and the school authorities to ensure the school environments are safe and attractive to our girls.
Not only that, but we want to eliminate the barrier of child marriage, the barrier of our children becoming mothers to pave way for girls to have access to education”, he explained.
He observed that the girls’ lack of access to education was the major drawback to the country and the leading cause of poverty in the Upper West Region.
Mr Kanton explained that recent data from the Ghana Statistical Service indicated that over 244,731 Ghanaian girls of school-going age, that is, 6 to 14 years, were out of school and had no chance of education.
He added that a baseline survey in twelve communities where phase one of the project was being implemented showed that about 300 girls were not in school.
He added that while some of them had never attended school before, others attempted but dropout due to structural difficulties.
The CDA Director also indicated that stigmatisation of girls who had, for some reasons, given birth while in school and the general unfriendly school environment is also denying the girls from accessing education.
“It is a systemic problem. The school environment is hostile and not friendly to girls. Girls have become like engendered species”, Mr Kanton said, adding that men were serving as impediment to the education of girls.
He also identified unequal distribution of domestic chores and unequal responsibility of boys and girls as also setbacks to the education of girls which needed to be eliminated.
Mr Peter Maala, the Upper West Regional Coordinating Director, who represented the Upper West Regional Minister at the launch of the project, commended the CDA and its partners for the project and expressed hope that it would help improve girls’ access to education.
“Societies cannot thrive unless all children and young people have quality education that provides them with academic knowledge and an understanding of values”, Mr Maala indicated.
He said the project had come at an opportune time to help increase access to quality basic education and also contribute to change in social norms that promote child marriage and hinder education for marginalised girls and young women.
Participants at the launch included the project beneficiaries, representatives from the Ghana Education Service, the Department of Gender, and Assembly Members of beneficiary communities among others.
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