Kumasi, July 19, GNA - The newly installed Magajia, has urged parents to give priority attention to the education of the girl-child in all facets of education since women constituted a strategic human resource base in national development.

Magajia, who is Muslim women's leader, said, "if we fail to properly educate the girl-child, we create a fundamental obstacle that undermines the nation's progress towards development."

Mma Mariama Saeed, 65, and a trader, gave this advice when she swore the oath of allegiance to Alhaji Osman Tanko, chief of the Bissa community in Ashanti at Ayigya Zongo in Kumasi on Sunday.

She called on parents, especially those in the rural areas to give equal opportunities and access to education to their daughters and desist from marginalizing them for religious and socio-economic reasons. Mma Saeed appealed to traditional rulers to evolve pragmatic measures that compel parents to give their daughters access to education so that they were not exposed to social vices at early ages.

Alhaji Tanko charged the newly installed Magajia to strive to unite all feuding factions in the community so as to facilitate improvement among the Bissa people.