Tamale, July 18, GNA- Madam Margaret Adisatu Haruna, Northern Regional Girl Child Education Officer, on Tuesday expressed concern about the involvement of children, especially girls in begging for alms in the Tamale Metropolis.

She said beggars, especially the blind, in the Metropolis were using girls of school going age to solicit alms while the boys were in school and described the situation as "a draw back to girls' education."

Madam Haruna said a research conducted by the Education office indicated that the beggars preferred using girls because "they render reasonable account" to them after the day's begging. She expressed the concern at a day's workshop on a study on the State of the Girl-child Education in the Metropolis in Tamale. ActionAid Ghana, an non-governmental organisation (NGO), carried out the study to assess enrolment, school attendance and academic performance of girls in the Metropolis towards the elimination of factors militating against girl-child education.

The study, which was carried out between 1997 and 2007, was also to assess parents' perception on girls' education, problems associated with girls' education and challenges parents encounter in educating girls. It was also to assist stakeholders make informed and appropriate recommendations towards the improvement of girl-child education. Mr. Yakubu Mohammed Saani, Programmes Manager of ActionAid, said despite public education to ensure that all children of school-going age were in school, some 140 million girls worldwide were still out of school.

He said the situation in the developing countries particularly sub-Saharan Africa was worse due to poverty levels of the people and cultural practices that discriminated against girls. Mr. Saani said ActionAid Ghana had collaborated with traditional rulers in the Northern Region to help fight the neglect of girls' education and to eliminate all forms of cultural practice that infringe on the rights of children in general.

He said withdrawal of girls from schools for marriage, house chores and to engage in menial jobs, was hampering their education. Mr. Saani, therefore called for a joint effort of stakeholders in education including NGOs and the media, to help reverse the trend, and gave the assurance that the NGO would continue to work hard to improve the education of the girl-child in the region.

Alhaji Abdul-Razak Saani, Tolon/Kumbungu District Director of the National Commission for Civic Education, who presented the findings, called for a sustained interest and adequate investment in girls' education in the region.

He said refusal by parents to enrol their children in school should be treated as a fundamental human rights abuse.

Alhaji Saani appealed to the Ghana Education Service to train teachers in guidance and counselling to enable them to convince parents to send their children to school. The findings showed a remarkable improvement in girls' enrolment in schools in the Metropolis while the situation was not encouraging in the peri-urban area.

Some 52 per cent of respondents in peri-urban Tamale endorsed girls' education while 61 per cent of the respondents in urban Tamale endorsed girls' education.

The study showed a 4.1 per cent annual increase in girls' enrolment while increase in boys' enrolment stood at 3.5 per cent. It indicated that only one female in Kasalgu, a community in peri-urban Tamale, had been able to qualify for the senior secondary school while only one girl from Vittin a suburb of Tamale, also gained admission into a tertiary institution.

Alhaji Musah Alhassan Jawula, an Assistant Regional Director of Education, said girls' education could become an important antidote to many household problems.

He commended ActionAid for the study and asked the NGO not to relent in its efforts to help improve education in the region. 19 July 07