A Human Rights Lawyer and former Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Bampoe Addo has stated that, investment in girls’ education is key for the growth and development of a country. It leads to economic empowerment of women to contribute their quota for socio economic activities.
The careful planning and strategy of investment in girls’ education, enabled the achievement by Ghana’s gender parity in school enrollment for girls and boys.
In 1995, the then Government of Flt Lt. Jerry John Rawlings adopted the Accra Accord on Girls Education National Plan 1995 to 2005.
Through this strategy, the Girls Education Unit, now Girl’s Education Directorate was created by the Ministry of Education within the basic education Division of the GES in 1997.
She acknowledged and salute professor Djangmah and his colleagues for this major feat which key objective of girl’s education in is to increase participation of girls in STEM by improving quality of teaching”.
She further disclosed that, investment in girls’ education provides better employment opportunities and higher wages to women than the uneducated women to appreciate use of contraception and have fewer children.
Nana Oye Bampoe made this statement when speaking during the 2024 International Women’s Day celebration under the theme, invest in women by the Ghana Registered Nurses Association in Accra .
She stated, ” Investing in women’s education additionally has a positive effect on infant and child health. A child born to a mother who can read is 50 percent more likely to survive past age 5. In Sub Sahara Africa, an estimated 1.8 million children’s lives could have been saved in 2008, if their mothers had at least a secondary education. Investing in a woman’s education decreases the woman’s risk on contracting HIV or transmitting HIV to her child. In Indonesia, child vaccination rates were 19 percent for women with no education, and 68 percent for women with at least secondary school education”.
Below is the full speech:
