As the world marks International Day of the Girl Child, ActionAid Ghana is pushing for the empowerment of women through education using the Model Girls’ School Concept to ensure the promotion of gender-responsive public basic education which will set girls on a path to better economic opportunities.
The Day is marked annually on October 11, to celebrate and discuss issues affecting girls.
Through the Girls’ Model School Concept which was rolled out in the Upper East Region in 2017, the humanitarian organization with support from the People’s Postcode Lottery of the UK constructed the Yakute Junior High Model Girls’ School and the adoption of the Pushiga Junior High School Model Girls’ School.
This saw the organization build a 3-unit classroom block with ancillary facilities such as a staff common room, library, toilets with changing rooms for the girls, and a mechanized borehole.
Following a sterling performance by the first batch of the Pushiga Model Girls’ JHS, the organization subsequently with support from ActionAid UK, constructed a 6-unit classroom block to serve as model girls primary school to feed the JHS.
As part of marking the International Day of the Girl Child, girls from Tongo Girls Junior High School, Pushiga, Bolga Girls’ Senior High, and Kongo SHS among others embarked on a street march to create awareness of the need to ensure girls receive quality and gender-responsive education.
They carried placards, some of which read, create safe spaces for girls to excel in education and leadership, our time is now, our rights, our future, invest in girls’ rights, our leadership, and our well-being among others.
Speaking at a regional dialogue with school girls and various stakeholders in education, the Upper East Regional Manager of ActionAid Ghana Alhassan Sulemana, noted that his outfit is a major stakeholder in education in the region and across the country having rolled out interventions aimed at improving access to quality education for all children.
He adds that ActionAid has led in the development of a 16-point criterion to guide the operationalization of model girls’ schools.
“ActionAid is a major stakeholder in education not just in the region but the country at large. We have in the past and presently rolled out programs and projects that supported ensuring quality education for all children by providing girl and disability-friendly school infrastructure; and facilitated the formation and operationalization of girls’ clubs to provide safe spaces for our girl children. We have supported GES in our 5 Regional program areas in Oti, Bono, Northern, Upper West, and Upper East.
Specifically in the Upper East, we rolled out this concept in 2017 with the construction of the Yakute JHS Model Girls’ School in Bawku and adopted the Pushiga JHS Model Girls’ School.
We will leverage the successes of the girls’ model school concept to ensure we promote gender-responsive public basic education.” The Regional Manager emphasized.
On his part, the Upper East Regional Coordinating Director, Alhaji Abubakari Innusah, decried how the statistics of teenage pregnancy and poor results at the BECE do not speak well of the region.
