Ghana has aimed at a one family to three children target for the year 2020 but according to Mr. Bamfo, the average rate currently stands at 4.2.

Ghana to miss 2020 fertility ratio target

[contextly_sidebar id=”AwSDbhTLfClI76OW3tXR0JE3lXoZucsw”]“In fact we should be aiming at a fertility rate of two. Three is what we aimed at for 2020, in 1994, when we revised the population policy we aimed at a fertility rate of three. We are three years away and we still have a fertility rate of 4.2 which means we are way off,” he said on the Citi Breakfast Show on Monday.

Mr. Banful made the remark on the following a proposal by the Executive Director of the National Population Council, Leticia Adelaide Appiah for government to restrict families to three children to ensure quality in human resource of the country.

“The way forward is to have a population policy implemented, the growth rate should be reduced and we have to talk about the quality of life,” she noted.

More education for women, family planning key

Mr. Banful on the Citi Breakfast Show said family planning and allowing girls to stay longer in school could be an answer to Ghana’s population surge which is said to be increasing by astronomical margins.

“Family planning is the methodology for achieving that. So making sure there is access to family planning is key, not only for women, the men can also some, there are condoms and vasectomy for men. All the men who believe they have the children they have can also do vasectomy so that we can start bringing the population down. I’m sure you’ve seen the kiosk cities springing around the urban areas, it’s because we don’t have enough accommodation.”

“We need to build schools but if we can’t control the input into our population system anytime we finish building the school, we won’t have enough schools, if we build hospitals we won’t have enough hospitals. So we need to control this.  The Asain Tigers saw this; Indonesia, Malaysia, China, all of them saw this and decided that managing the population was going to be key to their economic development,” he added.

Mr. Banful also urged government to introduce role modeling schemes for girls to enable them stay longer at school.

“…We need to also have a lot of modeling for girls; the women who have made it in life could become role models for others girls so that people will look up to these and say they want to be like them. The girls are going to school but they are not staying in school. The thing is to get them to stay in school,” he added.

Population surge could affect economy

The Population and Housing Census pegged Ghana’s total population by 28.21 million by 2016 while a United Nations estimates it to be 28.73 million as of August 20, 2017.

According to Leticia Appiah, Ghana has in the last 30 years, maintained an astronomical growth rate of 2.5; comparative to the global average of 1.5.

She said the development has negatively affected the country’s economy and development.

She noted that if the situation persists without the appropriate policy to address it, the quality of life in the country will experience a sharp decline leaving very few people with the needed technical know-how of addressing various challenges in the country.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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The team would among others provide education and training to young girls to increase enrollment, retention, performance and transition into higher levels of education.

It has also been tasked with the responsibility of providing direct interventions through the payment of fees of students from poor homes and supply of uniforms as well as identifying their peculiar problems and to help address them.

The team members include representatives from the Regional Girls Education Unit (RGEU), the Ghana Health Service (GHS), the Department of Gender, the Hunger Project and Camfed.

Members of the advisory board include Ministry of Education (MoE), Ghana Education Service (GES), Transforming Teacher Education and Learning (T-tel), Department of Gender and Social Welfare, Centre for Gender Research Advocacy and Documentation (CEGRAD), Plan International, USAID- Partnership for Education, Action Aid, Camfed, Varkey Foundation and Go Girl Ghana (GGG).

Their activities would be funded by the United Kingdom (UK) Department for International Development (DFID) through Camfed-Ghana.

Mr David Afram, Regional Director of Education, who inaugurated the taskforce, said GES established the Girl Education Unit (GEU) in 1997 to promote girl-child education and has since afforded many females the opportunity to climb the academic ladder to occupy major positions of national interest.

He said their activities formed part of the national efforts towards attaining the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) 4 and 5 and the Gender in Education Policy (GEP) aimed at promoting inclusive and quality education for gender equity and empowerment of girls.

Mr Afram said the taskforce would work to expand educational opportunities for girls through advocacy and provide financial support to brilliant but needy young girls.

“The surest way to break the bondage of poverty is through the provision quality, accessible and affordable education to young girls as a fundamental human right but not a privilege” he said.

The Regional Director advised parents to provide the needs of their girl-child such that they can reject sexual advances by men for favours.

Mrs Nora Afful, Regional Girls Education Director, said women are seriously lagging behind in many spheres of life and called for support mechanisms to enable them rub shoulders with their male counterparts.

She urged parents to disabuse their minds of the notion that a well-trained girl-child was only good for the kitchen and invest their resources in education to enable them pursue their dreams.

Mrs Afful urged the various assemblies to build consensus with traditional leaders and invoke their bye-laws to reduce teenage pregnancies, especially in the rural areas.

Mrs Gifty Nordzi, Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam Director of GEU, who spoke on behalf of the team, applauded the Regional Education Directorate for bringing stakeholders in the region to support girl-child education and their welfare.

Mrs Nordzi called for support and unity from members to enable them achieve their objectives.

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Source: GNA

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According to Akufo-Addo, Islam’s revered holy prophet, Mohammed, spoke against what he described as ‘gender injustice’ adding that any move in educating female children is synonymous to honouring the teachings of the prophet.

“It is important for us to recollect that one of the cardinal teachings of the prophet Mohammed is gender injustice. Remember that before the advent of Islam, women in Arabia were treated as secondary citizens and female infanticide was rife; a situation the Quran alludes to when it states that when the Day of Judgment ‘the female buried alive would be questioned for what crime she was killed.’”

“The Prophet restored the dignity of the woman, which we are required to uphold. It is not for nothing that the Prophet urges us to learn half of our religion from Aisha, a woman. This Prophetic admonishment resembles Kwegyir Aggrey’s oft-quoted statement that ‘if you educate a man, you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman, you educate a nation,’” the president added.

President Akufo-Addo made the remark when he addressed Muslims at the Eid ul Fitr celebration held at the Independence square in Accra on Monday.

The Eid celebration is a day set aside to mark the end of a 30-day fasting by Muslims, and also begins the month of Shawwal in the Islamic calendar.

Child marriages increased by 42%

Although Ghana’s 2010 population census estimates females to be 51%, same cannot be said of statistics in the educational sector as many of young ladies are given out in marriage instead of being in school.

A research conducted by Non-Governmental Organization, Songtaba, revealed that child marriages have increased by 42 percent and it’s very rampant in Muslim communities as well as the three regions of the north.

The report also revealed that, girls as young as 13 years had been forced to marry against their willpower.

It is against this backdrop that a number of civil society organizations, traditional authorities as well as government, have waged war and boosted advocacy in a bid to curb the menace, and allow young girls to further their education instead of being in marriage at tender ages.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

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On the occasion of the International Day of the Girl Child, the NGO noted that, although women make up the majority of most populations in the world, very little is being done to address the disadvantages and discrimination borne by girls.

According to the 2014, Ghana Living Standards Survey’s Child Labour Report, “The proportion of females (5.6%) who have never attended school is higher than males (5.7%). The Ghana Statistical Service (2014) also indicates that the school attendance rates for males are higher than for females and the differences become more noticeable with increasing age.

The total attendance rates recorded for males and females in the age group 6-11 years, are 93.3 percent and 92.6 percent respectively, compared with 93.4 percent for males, and 90.6 percent for females 19-25 years.

HFFG said “This is even more pronounced for females in the age group 19-25 years in the rural savannah where a very low rate of 53.2 percent is recorded. These statistics indicate that more effort is needed not only in sending female children to school but, more importantly, also ensuring that they stay in school. Again, in Ghana, unemployment is highest among females between the ages of 15-25 (GSS, August 2014). Whilst about 52% of people aged 15-24 were employed (compared to about 90% for the 25-64 population), a third were in school, 14% were inactive and 4% were unemployed actively looking for job.”

It expressed worry that women and girls in the country continue to be the victims of negative cultural practices and are more adversely affected by HIV/AIDS, sexual abuse, child marriages, and other reproductive health rights issues.

It also called on various stakeholders to collaborate to ensure girls and women in Ghana enjoy equal opportunities as targeted by the United Nations.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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