Give more attention to girls: MP

ABAU MP Sir Puka Temu says the education of girls and family planning will contribute to addressing gender-based violence (GBV).
“Educating a girl will lead to a healthy and an educated nation,” he told Parliament on Thursday.
“Also, family planning has to be encouraged to families to have fewer children.
“That way we can solve GBV in the long run.”
Sir Puka said this after the tabling of a parliamentary report GBV report.
He said the Government needed to emphasis the education of women.
“When you educate a girl, you are educating a nation,” Sir Puka said.
“We must treat it very special to educate a girl. For example; in our school subsidy scheme, if a family has three children and the parents cannot afford the school fees, then the Government can pay for the daughters’ school fees. Those are special interventions to educate our girls right through primary to university education.
“If she doesn’t find a place in the next level of education, the Government has to fund her fees at vocational schools.
“I support the recommendation in the GBV report calling for a good curriculum to educate girls.”
Sir Puka said family planning needed to be encouraged and funded because a another developing issue was the high maternal mortality rate in the country.
He said GBV and the high maternal mortality rate was in part due to the inadequate empowerment of women to plan their families.
“One strong recommendation for the treasurer is to fully fund the family planning programme and make it accessible,” Sir Puka said.