Data from the Ghana Statistical Service indicates that nearly two hundred and fifty thousand girls aged between 6 and 14 years have never attended school before.

This was revealed following the 2021 Population and Housing Census, which was conducted between June and July last year.

The report, published on the Ghana Statistical Service website in commemoration of the International Day of the Girl Child, stated that “despite free and compulsory universal basic education, almost a quarter of a million girls (244,731) aged 6 to 14 years have never attended school at all.”

Giving a breakdown of the figures, GSS noted that the Northern region has the highest number of girls who have never been to school before.

“Three out of every 10 of these girls are in the Northern Region which has the highest number of girls who have never attended school (73,516) followed by the Savannah (27,930) and North East (22,857) regions,” it said.

The report further said “these three regions also have the highest percent of girls currently not attending school (never attended or attended in the past) with Savannah leading all regions with 40.2% followed by the North East Region (29.3%) and the Northern Region (28.5%).”

According to the report, the total number of girls (aged 6 to 14) in the country who are not attending school ((never attended or attended in the past) is 285,271.

Three out of every four girls (75.8%) aged 6 to 14 years not attending school are living in rural areas, the report said.

Touching on other issues affecting the girl child, the report said, 99,150 girls under 15 years are engaged in economic activity with half of them (49.7%) out of school.

Also, half (49.9%) of girls engaged in economic activity are in the Northern (22,647), Oti (17,694), and North East (9,153) regions which have the highest share of girls in economic activity.

Meanwhile, the government of Ghana has rolled out various policies aimed at curbing illiteracy in the country; including the Akufo- Addo-led administration’s flagship free Senior High School policy.

According to the Education Ministry, about 1.6 million students as of the end of 2021 benefited from the government’s flagship education programme, Free SHS, since its inception in 2017.

However, there is still a vast number of the population that is not educated. This has been confirmed by the statistics provided by GSS, which state that nearly 250,000 girls have never been to school before.

International Day of the Girl Child

The International Day of the Girl Child is an annual event commemorated on October 11, 2022 is the tenth year since its inception.

The theme of International Day of the Girl Child this year is -- “Our time is now—our rights, our future”.

The International Day of the Girl Child is celebrated each year to direct people’s attention to the need to address the challenges facing girls and to promote girls’ empowerment towards the fulfilment of their human rights.

Source: The Independent Ghana