A examine carried out by the College of Cape Coast (UCC) has discovered a excessive and rising incidence of cohabitation amongst college college students residing in personal hostels.
Cohabitation is to stay collectively and have a sexual relationship with out being married.
The state of affairs is attributed to the intense freedom within the personal hostels loved by the scholars, not like the standard college halls the place some management mechanisms have been instituted.
In just a few circumstances, the scholars put their sources collectively to hire the area for financial causes.
Whereas nearly all of college students thought cohabitation was dangerous, just a few perceived it pretty much as good, enjoyable and regular.
The examine, which was additionally carried out in some adjoining communities discovered that the follow was contributing extremely to teenage being pregnant and baby marriage.
Professor Georgina Yaa Oduro, the Head of the Sociology and Anthropology Division at UCC, shared the findings at a workshop on ending baby marriage and GenderBased Violence for some conventional council registrars from eight regional homes of chiefs and the Nationwide Home of Chiefs.
The coaching, organised by the United Nations Inhabitants Fund (UNFPA) and the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Non secular Affairs, sought to deepen the understanding of the registrars on baby marriage, gender-based violence and different dangerous practices to assist them perform successfully.
“If you’re on campus and within the halls, you may have the corridor masters, tutors, and the corridor council to regulate you. Within the women’ hostels, for instance, guys can’t go to the halls after 10:00 PM,” Prof Oduro stated.
“However within the personal hostels, comparatively, you may have the liberty to do no matter you need.”
Prof Oduro stated the companions carried out all of the roles of married {couples} together with intercourse and home chores comparable to cooking, washing and giving out cash.
A number of the college students, notably the younger girls who needed to juggle educational work and home chores for his or her companions, typically missed lectures or attended late, affecting their research, she famous.
Like within the communities, she noticed that cohabitation amongst college students was additionally characterised by gender-based violence comparable to pressured intercourse, abortions and quarrels usually as a result of freedom in such relationships.
She narrated how a 22-year-old male pupil of UCC died by suicide this 12 months following a misunderstanding along with his accomplice he was cohabiting with.
A lot of these relationships sadly ended after faculty, she famous.
The professor famous that little or no consideration had been given to the problem and known as for concerted efforts by stakeholders, together with mother and father, lecturers, faculty authorities, and conventional and non secular leaders, to mitigate it.
Prof Oduro noticed with fear the abuse of emergency contraceptives by younger women and cautioned in opposition to the identical.
“It’s my understanding that such tablets are alleged to be taken as soon as in six months or so. However for some youngsters at the moment, it’s their on a regular basis tablet,” she said with concern.