COVID-19: Female students at home getting pregnant – N/R Minister

According to the Nothern Regional Minister, Mr Salifu Saeed, the majority of female students currently at home as a temporal school break amid the outbreak of the locally transmitted coronavirus are getting pregnant.

The Minister attributed the high rate of teenage pregnancy to the fact that parents of such students can not provide their wards three square meal a day.

He lamented that the continuous staying at the home of students will permanently shorten their chance of getting the education when schools reopen and consequently put them away from school forever.

The Northern Regional Minister made these comment when he met with journalists in Tamale Sunday, July 27, 2020, during the second phase of nationwide disinfection and fumigation of markets and public places.

“But if you look at our markets right from Makola, Abgbgloshie, Temale, Bimbila, Walewale to Navrongo, you will see the young ones who are selling on the various markets and these are students exposed without using face mask or practicing social distancing,” he stated.

“These students are even more at risk as they are staying at home than confining in the school environment”.

The Northern Regional Minister urged Ghanaians to overlook the impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) before making calls for closure of schools adding that those in schools currently are even more protected than those at home

“Many of these female students are tired of staying at home because they just wake up each morning roaming aimlessly in town and are more exposed to the virus than those in school,” he said as quoted by Starr FM

“Those who are calling for schools to close down should rethink again because me I am a local person even though I’m a minister, I go to the grass root, local communities and markets are flooded with these same students.” he added.

Source: Georgeweb.org