The Executive Director of the National Population Council (NPC), Dr Leticia Adelaide Appiah, has called for urgent steps to curb the issue of teenage pregnancy in the country, stressing that its rate of occurrence was more than alarming.

She said the country's teenage pregnancy figures had hit more than 500,000 within the last five years, and the situation could be worse unless steps were taken to reverse the trend.

Dr Appiah, who disclosed this at a day's training workshop on population issues organised by the NPC in Accra yesterday, said between 2016 and 2021, about 555,575 teenage pregnancies were recorded.

She said the critical nature of the situation required that the media took serious interest in issues of population and teenage pregnancy.

Dr Appiah said population education was pivotal in the development of any country, and the media must take interest in it.

"In countries such as Pakistan, the government had integrated population education in both formal and non-formal sectors and in their academic system, from primary to university levels," she said.

Dr Appiah said there was the need to focus on a new era in collective improvement and open communication when it came to population matters.

"We cannot openly communicate without relevant and functional knowledge because knowledge and education is a potent instrument of change for any nation. Knowledge is sharing, and sharing and use is the most important public good," she said.