Mr George Yaw Ankamah, the Bono Regional Director of the Department of Children has called for collective efforts to bridge the existing gender gap in entrepreneurship and other informal sector employments.
He said it was unfortunate that society had assigned specifics jobs and reserved them for both men and women making them to be reluctant to engage in other jobs to enhance their socio-economic livelihoods.
The Regional Director cited that boys and girls could learn employable skills training in hairdressing, dressmaking, commercial driving, cooking and food vending as well as mechanic, fabricating, carpentry and masonry as well as wielding.
Mr Ankamah made the call at a forum organised for school children of the Sunyani Mmeredane Basic School to commemorate the year-long celebration of the 2024 World Population Day (WPD).
The Bono Regional Office of the National Population Council (NPC) in collaboration with the Regional Office of the Department of Children organised the forum to sensitise the school children on the WPD.
This year’s celebration of the WPD is on the theme “the power of 12 million: youth as key drivers towards a resilient future for Ghana”.
The WPD, observed annually on July 11, aims to raise awareness about global population issues and their impact on society.
Established by the United Nations, the day highlights the importance of addressing population-related concerns such as reproductive health, family planning, gender equality, and sustainable development.
Mr Ankamah underlined the need for parents to also train their boys, and allowed them to undertake household chores, including cooking, washing of bowls and other chores that society had wrongly assigned and reserved for girls.
Mr Davies Yeboah Aboagye, the Bono Regional Officer of the NPC, noted that out of the 12 million youth in the country, only 4.6 million representing 3.9 percent were in employment, while 1.1 million of them remained unemployed.
He said there was the need for the nation to invest in the youth as that would enable them to possess the right skills, health and capacity, to trigger national development.
He said equipping the youth through education, training and skills development provided them with the opportunity to enter the job market or embark on entrepreneurial ventures which in the long run made them financially independent, and thereby, contribute economic growth.
The Reverend Eric Takyi, personnel of the NPC, urged teachers to help imbibe godly values in the upbringing and development of school children.
That he added would empower the school children to escape the temptation of acts of immorality and thereby concentrate on their books.
Rev Takyi regretted that the widespread use of the social media had exposed children to several challenges and thereby increasing their vulnerabilities and called on parents to check their children against the unproductive use of the social media.
Mrs Veronica Dagba, the Assistant Head teacher at the school expressed appreciation to the NPC for the forum and appealed to the public to help improve sanitation in the school.
She said the school needed toilets and washrooms for the children and teachers as well fencing to ward-off stray animals and improve discipline as well.
