ENCOURAGE GIRLS TO PURSUE MATHEMATICS, SCIENCES (JUNIOR GRAPHIC, PAGE 3)

The Deputy Minister of Education, Science and Sports (MOESS), Mrs Angelina Baiden-Amissah, has entreated male teachers not to discourage girls from pursuing Mathematics, science and technical based careers.
She noted that gender discrimination, continued to negatively affect girls who had interest in science based careers and, therefore, urged teachers to guide and counsel females in their class to achieve greater heights.
Mrs. Baiden-Amissah said this at the maiden Speech and Prize-giving Day of the OLA Girls Senior High School (SHS) at Kenyasi No.2 in the Asutifi District of the Brong Ahafo Region. It was on the theme “Girl Child Education, The Role of the State, The Society and Parent”.
The school was founded in 1974 by the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles (OLA Sisters) and it was the first all-female secondary school to be established in the Brong Ahafo Region.
She gave the assurance that, the government would continue to fulfil its constitutional mandate in the education sector by pursuing sound policies and programmes to enable more girls to study in areas dominated by boys such as medicine, engineering, mathematics and science.
She gave the assurance that the six-unit classroom block, sick bay and other assistance rrequested for by the headmistress of the school would be considered.
Ms. Lydia Osei, who represented the First Lady, Mrs Theresa Kufuor, as the special guest of honour in her address, stressed the need for the talents of the youth to be harnessed and tapped for national development, saying “this would require collective efforts from all”.
Rev. Sister Martha Davis, the Headmistress of the school commended the government for the introduction of the Computerised System for Selection into Senior High School (CSSPS), which she noted had eased a lot of pressure on heads of schools.
She, however, observed that the CSSPS had not favoured the school in realising its aim of bringing quality education to rural girls, since those who were weak academically and had between aggregate 18 and 30 in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) were those who had admission to the school.
Rev. Sis. Davis, therefore, appealed to the Ghana Education Service to give the school the permission to enrol young girls from the rural areas who obtainedwith weak grades at the BECE into SHS One.
Three students namely Belinda Aferi, Josephine Bugri and Efia Baaw Afriyie were adjudged the Overall Best Students for SHS forms three, two and one respectively. They were presented with awards, while some teaching and non-teaching staff were also rewarded for their good services to the school.