Ms. Agartha Osei, Nkoranza District Girls Education Officer, has urged municipal and district directors of education to encourage the posting of more female teachers to Junior High Schools, so that they could serve as role models to the girls. Briefing the Ghana News Agency in her office at Nkoranza, she said the major challenge facing female education in the district was teenage pregnancy, which made a number of girls to drop out of school. She attributed the problem to parental neglect and irresponsibility as some parents cared little about the welfare, upkeep and development of their children and this forced the girls to engage in premarital sex. She said boys also dropped out of school, to engage in all sorts of menial jobs, which often led them to join questionable characters and indulge in all manner of social vices. Miss Osei said the female teacher in JHS could counsel the girls to be cautious in life. Miss Osei appealed to parents to be more responsible towards their wards to help them remain in school. She also called on religious leaders to use the pulpit to educate the youth more especially girls, to take their education seriously and appealed to School Management Committees to visit schools regularly to identify problems of students to enable parents address them. Ms Osei urged teachers to encourage and support girls to sustain their interest in their education just as the boys. Meanwhile, headteachers and headmasters of the various basic schools in the district have been advised to promote the formation of 'Virgin and Abstinence' clubs in their schools to protect students against premarital sex as well as the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Source: GNA