Bawku (UE), Oct. 23, GNA- Circumcision of female children seems to be on the increase in the Bawku Municipality and its environs as parents are still carrying out the act secretly.      Statistics by stakeholders including the Social Welfare, Ghana Health Service and the Ghana Education Service shows that children between the ages of one year to 17 years go through the ordeal in Bawku or neighbouring countries such as Burkina Faso, Togo or Niger.      About 30 per cent of girls living in the area are recruited to undergo the exercise in Bawku or sent to the neighboring countries yearly.      Most of the girls, who go through the act, either become school dropouts or face psychological problems, because they must stay at home until the wound heals which takes a long time.      Mrs Lydia Issaka, Municipal Girl-Child Education Officer, disclosed this at an advocacy forum organized by the Municipal Education Directorate for stakeholders, opinion leaders, traditional leaders, artisan groups and the Parent Teacher Association (PTA)        The forum was aimed at find lasting solutions to the problem of female circumcision, as it was hampering the education of girls at Bawku in the Upper East Region.      Mrs Issaka noted that about 15 girls believed to have gone through the practice could not take part in the Basic Education Certificate Examination this year.      She explained that most girls are lured to neighbbouring countries by their parents or close relatives, where they are forcibly circumcised.      Communities that practice female circumcisions include Pusiga, Zong-Ntinga, Jentiga and Badoor, among others in the municipality.       She called on stakeholders to expedite action on finding an antidote to the issue as it was the major factor for the falling standards of education, especially girls in the area.      Mr Benedict Yindol, Bawku Municipal Director of Education, said challenges including supervision, poor performance and girl- child education were the major issues hindering the development of education in the area.      He said as a result of the ban on men from riding motor bikes in the municipality, circuit supervisors found it difficult to reach their circuits to supervise teachers.      He said even though there are many challenges facing the directorate it had instituted the school monthly census to check on teachers.   Mr Yindol said the inspectorate unit had adopted the mass supervising approach in which all supervisors move to a circuit at a time to supervise teaching and learning.   GNA...

Accra, Oct. 23, GNA – Mr Fiifi Kwetey, a Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning has reiterated the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) commitment to ensure quality education that would be accessible to all.   He said access to quality education was the most critical need facing education in Ghana and not free education at Senior High School level as the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) wanted the electorate to believe.   “The National Democratic Congress has explained that in the light of resource constraints that face Ghana, just like other developing countries, our foremost attention must be on channeling resources to improve the quality of education and access to education,” he said.   Mr Kwetey was speaking at the NDC Forum for Setting the Records Straight series organised in Accra to highlight the achievements in the educational sector by the party and other strategies to achieve accessible quality education.   He said the promise made by Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo, NPP Presidential Candidate to give free education at Senior High School level, when voted to power cannot be feasible because although the cost of education is important it is not the number one priority.   “NPP’s belief that the biggest problem facing the educational sector in Ghana today is the cost of second cycle education shows the complete lack of understanding by the NPP. Any elementary analysis of the educational situation in Ghana will reveal that the most critical factor facing the sector is access to quality education.”   Mr Kwetey said the NDC firmly believed that the best approach to advancing the educational fortunes of Ghana is to focus on expanding the educational infrastructure to increase access and invest in improving the quality of education and to pay maximum attention to basic level education.   He said education at the basic level is the root of the educational tree and by machining it completely free, compulsory and universal and subject to resource availability progressively make higher level education affordable.   He said “the NDC, unlike the NPP, is conscious of the fact that 18.3 per cent of children who should be in primary school are not in school; 53.9 per cent of children who should be in Junior High School are not in school”.   “The NDC is also aware that the existing 8,557 Junior High School cannot absorb the primary six pupils from 14,360 primary schools. The NDC is also aware that the same inadequate infrastructure problem afflicts the secondary and tertiary levels of education,” he said.   GNA...

Accra, Oct. 23, GNA – The first in a series of Election 2012 Presidential Debate is slated for Tuesday, October 30th at the Radach Hotel Tamale, the Institute of Economic Affairs stated in a statement to the Ghana News Agency in Accra.   The Debates will take the form of a policy dialogue engagement at which the Presidential Candidates will present their viewpoints, plans and programmes to the electorates.   The platform would also be used to point out weaknesses in the policies of their co-contestants and present alternatives to those policies and programmes.   The electorate on the other hand will receive first hand information on the   programmes and plans of each candidate.   In accordance with electoral arrangement, the Presidential Candidates will be arranged according to their position on the ballot paper, with President John Dramani Mahama of the National Democratic Congress leading, whilst Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo takes the rear.   The two main contenders would sandwich the Presidential Candidates of the Convention Peoples Party, Dr Michael Abu Sakara Foster and Peoples National Convention’s Mr Hassan Ayariga in between.   According to the IEA the Debates will enable the electorate to make an informed choice on Election Day and it serve as efforts to consolidate multiparty democracy and promote issue based elections in Ghana.   The 2012 Presidential Debate will provide a common platform for the Presidential Candidates to answer questions on various aspects of the nation’s development process.   According to the IEA, the first Presidential Debate will be based on questions received from the following thematic areas; Economy, National Development Plan, Job Creation/Employment, Economic Growth, and National Debt.   On the social sector, the question will focus on Socio-Economic Infrastructure (including ICT), Education, Health, Water/ Sanitation, Food Security, Housing, Electricity and Power.   The rest of the question will seek answers on the private sector development, industrialization, and foreign policy.   The IEA Election 2012 Presidential Debate is being sponsored by StarGhana .   GNA...