Alhaji Amidu Sulemana, Upper West Regional Minister has called on all Muslims across the country to pay special attention to the education of the girl-child and desist from only seeing them as housewives.

He noted that even though a lot of progress had been made in recent years, there was still more to be done especially to check drop-out rate among females which seemed to be linked to early marriages.

“Our young ladies, I believe will have even better and more respectable marriages if they are well educated and we must not deny them the opportunity”, he emphasized.

Alhaji Sulemana was speaking during the launch of the 25th Anniversary celebration of the Islamic Education Unit on Thursday in Wa under the theme: “25 years of Existence of the Islamic Education Unit: Challenges and the Way forward”.

The Regional Minister said the introduction of the Islamic Education Unit had made a meaningful impact on the education of Muslims in particular and the society in general.

Alhaji Sulemana said secular education had become very important and urged all Muslims not to deny their children that.

He said government had demonstrated its commitment to enhance education by empowering schools through infrastructure development to create an enabling environment for a sound foundation for wisdom, knowledge, skills and desirable values and attitudes.

He stated that about 80 percent of projects undertaken by government in the region was in the area of education and appealed to authorities of the Islamic Education Unit to set benchmarks and ensure effective supervision at all levels.

The Unit was established in 1987 to provide opportunity for Muslim communities to gain easy access to secular education as well as intensify girl child education in their schools.

It was also established to enhance the success of the government’s policy of Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) as well as to facilitate the integration of Quranic Schools into the formal Ghanaian Education delivery system.

Mr. Halid Baba Yahaya, the General Manager of Islamic Education Unit, said in spite of the late entrance of the Islamic Education Unit into the education delivery system, the Unit currently had a total of 1,876 basic schools nationwide in its 25 years of existence.

Alhaji Nurideen Sualih, the Upper West Regional Manager of the Islamic Education Unit, said the celebration of the 25th Anniversary was to offer them the opportunity to take stock of their achievements and find a way forward to address their challenges.**