Boys consistently outnumber girls at the Kindergarten level in the Bolgatanga Municipality, but their numbers decline as they progress through school, leaving girls ahead by JHS 3, according to the Municipal Director of Education, George Asira.
Mr Asira says education data from the municipality over the past five years shows a persistent decline in the number of boys remaining in school as they advance through the basic education system.
“There’s one thing that I want to bring to our attention, which is very important, and that has been observed over time. There’s a trend, for the last five years, the data that we have shown that girls’ education is on the higher side than boys’ in the municipality,” he stated.
He raised the concern when the Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly handed over two newly constructed Kindergarten blocks to communities in the municipality.
According to Mr Asira, the trend is particularly concerning because boys begin their education with an enrolment advantage over girls, but that advantage disappears as they progress towards the end of basic school.
“In fact, at the KG level, consistently, you have higher numbers of boys than girls. By the moment they enter and progress to JHS 3, the numbers turn against the boys,” he said.
While he did not provide figures showing the number of boys who leave school at each stage, Mr Asira said the available data indicates that boys are progressively falling out of the education system.
He did not discuss the factors responsible for the trend, saying the occasion was not the appropriate forum to examine the causes.
“Answers are obvious, but this is not a forum to diagnose those issues. But I just want to throw this to the public, and to appeal that we need to let the boy-child also consistently, persistently stay in school. The boys are not there, they are there, but as they progress, they fall out of school,” he added.
The Education Director called for greater attention to the retention of boys while stressing that efforts to keep children in school should not become a competition between boys and girls.
“Whether boy-child, girl-child, it is the duty of parents to bring their boy-child, girl-child to school, and ensure that they stay in school,” Mr Asira urged.
He therefore appealed to parents and other education stakeholders to ensure that children are not only enrolled in school but supported to remain in the classroom throughout their basic education.
A1 Radio | 101.1 MHz | David Azure | Bolgatanga
