Scholarship schemes, girls’ education camps, clubs and other social interventions at the pre and basic school levels have helped to increase girls’ enrolment in the Central Region.

The Regional Girls Education Officer of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mrs. Nora Afful, who told the Ghana News Agency, in an interview, on Wednesday said apart from the interventions, the Unit also implemented a role model outreach programme in rural schools to encourage young girls to aspire to higher heights.

Mrs Afful said with the various interventions, a total of 57,537 girls were enrolled at the Kindergarten (KG) level; 143,232 at the primary; while the Junior High School (JHS) registered 55,725 at the end of last year.

She, however, expressed worry that 88 female candidates who sat for the 2014 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in the Region were pregnant.

They, were, however, allowed to write the exams.

Mrs. Afful underscored the importance of girl child education, saying if a girl was denied her right to education, it increased her risk of being exploited, abused and her vulnerability to Sexually Transmitted Infections such as HIV/AIDS.

“Educating girls, however, is a step towards eliminating poverty, advancing human development and stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS…, promoting girls’ education would also get the boys to school,” she explained.

Mrs. Afful identified the non-availability of a vehicle to visit the rural schools as the major challenge facing the interventions programme and called on parents, teachers, government and other stakeholders to ‘help uplift the image of the girl-child.