The Wenchi Municipality Council in Bono, Ghana recorded a higher dropout rate at the end of December 2020. This was revealed by the Wenchi City Health Bureau in a media briefing at the end of the annual meeting on Thursday, February 18, 2021.
Statistics from Wenchi Health Bureau show that by the end of 2020, 615 teenage pregnancies have been recorded. According to statistics, this is the highest number of teenage pregnancies in Wenchi Municipality in the past five years.
Ms. Effua A. D. Amoah, Education Director of Wenchi City, revealed that the teenage pregnancy rate of school girls have continued to rise.
Wenchi Municipality Education Bureau faces a large number of female students who drop out of school every year. For Mrs. Effua Amoah, this undercuts the achievements of the education sector over the years, as more and more school-age girls are enrolled.
A teacher at a public school in Wenchi however, attributed the increase in teenage pregnancy rates to lack of parental care and peer pressure as opposed to financial shortcomings.
“School girls at junior high schools must be guided by their parents at home, under their watchful eyes but this is not the case’. Girls at this age are curious and so fall victim into unwanted pregnancies as a result of material enticement from some unscrupulous male adults, dropping out of school”, he noted.
Mr. Mohammed Kassim, a member of the Achenfi electoral district, who is also an administrator of a school in Wenchi, emphasized that the municipal council must issue directives to punish any adult males who impregnates any female student.
