A Senior Lecturer at the Department of Technical Communication of the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT), Tarkwa, Dr. Cecilia Addei has called on the education ministry to stop turning mixed schools into girls’ schools all in the name of promoting girl child education.
Some Senior High Schools in communities, which used to be mixed schools have been turned into girls’ schools, depriving boys in the community who would have access to the school after completing JHS.
According to Dr. Cecilia Addei, these senior high schools in the communities were helping parents who could not afford to take their wards to the boarding houses, because the child could go to school on daily basis, but turning them into girls’ schools will deprive the boys, whose parents cannot afford to send them to schools far from the community.
Speaking in an interview with GhanaWeb, Dr. Cecilia Addei mentioned schools like Gyaakye Pramso Senior High, Ntonso Senior High, Atwimaman Senior High, Methodist Day Senior High, all in the Ashanti Region, and Ahantaman Senior High School in the Western Region among others as some mixed senior high schools that have been converted into girls’ schools.
She attributed the conversion of these schools into girls’ schools to the women empowerment campaigns in the country and the world at large.
“If you are opening a new school and you say it is a girls’ school, that is fine, but if you start it as a mixed school and later convert it to a girls’ school, that wouldn’t help,” she stressed.
She noted that “people have understood the women empowerment campaign such that they are neglecting the boy child.”
She also explained that during visiting hours, parents turn to visit the girls more than the boys, adding that “inasmuch as we are pushing ladies to climb up the academic ladder, we should not neglect the boys.”
She charged parents to give both the boys and girls equal opportunities when they go to school.
“As a parent, if you are giving money or provisions to your girl child, give the same to the boy child and visit them equally during visiting hours.”
Even though Dr. Cecilia Addei believes in the promotion of girl child education and women empowerment, she is of the view that focusing so much on the girl child without the boy child will have dire consequences on society in general.
