By Dennis Peprah
Sunyani, Feb. 26, GNA – Girl child education has seen significant improvement in the Bono Region, with girls outnumbering boys in school enrolment, Mrs Josephine Yalley, the Bono Regional Girl-Child Education Officer, has said.
“These days it’s not about girls in school, but it’s about how to retain them and how to help them transition them complete safely and that’s our mission and focus now” she told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview in Sunyani.
Mrs Yalleh was speaking to the GNA in an interview to mark the 2025 celebration of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science on the theme “unpacking STEM Careers: Her Voice in Science, with a hybrid on 11 February 2025”.
The Day celebrated annually on February 11 was instituted by UNESCO and UN Women aimed at promoting women and girls in science. It also offers an opportunity to promote full and equal access to and participation in science for women and girls.
Mrs Yalley said the interest of many girls to access formal education and remain in schools had improved in the region for some years now and attributed the improvement to the intensified girl-child education in the local communities.
She said teenage pregnancy, child marriage had also gone down, however, called on traditional authorities and civil society organisations, actors, and religious bodies to collaborate with the GES and help stem some outmoded cultural and traditional norms inimical to the growth and development of girls.
Mrs Mavis Danso Darko, the Bono Regional Coordinator of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), urged parents and guardians to encourage their girl child to pursue STEM courses.
She told the GNA that STEM had huge numerous opportunities and potential for girls and women, saying girls who studied STEM easily access educational scholarships and employment.
Mrs Darko said it was untrue that STEM education was difficult and reserved for boys, urging girls to develop the interest and specialized in the area as a life career to easily access gainful employment.
Earlier, the Regional Girls Education Unit with support from the Help Her Ghana, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) working to empower girls and the vulnerable in society held a street procession to create awareness about the STEM Day.
It was attended by more than 400 school children with placards, some of which read “educate, encourage and empower”, “more women in science, more solutions for tomorrow”, and “STEM needs more minds including hers”.
In an interview, Ms Emelia Darko, Co-Director, Help Her Ghana, said if given opportunity “women do and do things well,” hence the need to inspired girls to undertake STEM education to position women well to contribute to environmental sustainability and proffer realistic solutions to the nation’s development challenges.
“Women care a lot about the environment, and they will be able to take care of the environment if we encourage and support girls to study STEM education,” she stated.
GNA