Poverty is a canker which has eaten deep into the fabric of the society and is depriving most children of school age in the municipality the opportunity to take up the mantle of leadership in society in future. A research conducted by the Assin Fosu Office of the Information Services Department has revealed that 67.06 per cent of JHS leavers, especially those in the deprived communities, had abandoned their education and were either helping their parents on their farms or doing menial jobs and idling. Some girls, aged, 15 to 17 who had dropped out of JHS at the time of the survey, were pregnant. According to some of them, the boys responsible for the pregnancies were at large. Some could also not tell who were responsible for their pregnancy, while others had come to accept their fate, assumed motherhood roles in illegitimate teenage marriages. The research revealed that out of every 10 teenage girls in the municipality, four were pregnant. The situation is very disheartening and calls for pragmatic efforts to arrest the situation. A 15-year-old pregnant girl, who dropped out of school in JHS One, said her single parent could not afford the tuition fee ofGH¢32 a term charged at one of the private schools. Most of the JHS leavers interviewed claimed that their parents were not in a position to further their education. The situation has also resulted in some of dropouts going wayward and taking to the use of narcotic drugs, engaging in petty thievery and making some drinking bars their dens. Those teenage girls and boys, aged between 13 and 16, patronize the drinking bars during ungodly hours, with some openly seen smoking, with the girls clad in provocative outfits. Seventeen-year-old Ms Precious Asare claimed to have been at home for two years after completing JHS, although she had aggregate 14 in the BECE, because her parents could not afford to further her education. Some parents and guardians contended that even though the Capitation Grant, the School Feeding Programme and the free school uniforms for the children at the basic level had come to reduce their burden, they were still unable to purchase petty educational materials for their children. According to him, the "disturbing" situation had necessitated the setting up of a committee to appeal to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to come to the aid of the JHS graduates, especially those whose education was in the limbo.
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