Eduwatch, a non-governmental organisation has disclosed that 555, 575 teenage girls in Ghana got pregnant between 2016 and 2020.

The education NGO said over 100,000 Junior High School girls get pregnant each year across the country.

Executive Director of Eduwatch, Mr. Kofi Asare who disclosed this at a workshop organized by Eduwatch for stakeholders in the northern sector to seek their opinion on government's re-entry policy for pregnant school girls and the back to school campaign said the initiative was in the right direction.

He said Covid-19 made it more pertinent for an aggressive campaign following a sharp increase in pregnant teenage girls during the closure of schools, adding that the GES rolled out the back to school campaign to catalyze efforts to ensure that every pregnant girl is able to re-enter school and complete.

He said it is within the context of the implementation of the policy and campaign that Africa Education Watch with support from partners has been reviewing the effectiveness of the policy and the campaign.

Mr. Asare said they have been engaging stakeholders at the national and local level including the implementing agencies on the strength of the policy and the campaign, any possible gaps in the implementation, how to strengthen the local ownership and the sustainability of the policy to improve the relevance of same within the context of the economic factors that continue to affect the re-entry of girls to school .

He said the northern sector stakeholder meeting is the second gathering to seek opinions of stakeholders to improve the implementation of the policy so that they put together a national policy on what should be done to enhance the effectiveness of the re-entry policy.

Mr. Asare said they will hold discussions with the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, the Ministry of Health, the National Commission on Civic Education, the Social Welfare and major agencies that play roles in the prevention of pregnancy among teenagers so as to strengthen their collaboration and tackle emerging issues from the consultative forum.