MTN LAUNCHES LITERACY PROJECT (PAGE 19, JULY 18)

MOBILE Telecommunication Network (MTN) has launched a $70,000 education project in Tamale to help arrest the downward trend in education in the Northern Region.
The three-year project, which is to be piloted in five schools, will later be extended to cover 25 schools in the region, with an estimated impact on over 10,000 pupils.
The main thrust of the project is to promote literacy and numeracy in the beneficiary schools.
It is expected to enhance the teaching and learning environment for pupils in deprived schools. The schools will also be equipped with the requisite resources and personnel through in-service training for both teachers and head teachers, books and other reading materials will be provided, new learning approaches in teachers’ resource centres will be created, among other interventions.
The five beneficiary schools are the Choggu Demonstration, Tyumba, Vittin Ansuariya, Shishegu and St Gabriel Primary and Junior High schools, all in Tamale.
The project is collaboration between the MTN and the Academy for Education Development Ghana: Centre for Education Development, Evaluation and Management (AED-Ghana:CEDEM), an NGO.
The Tamale Metropolitan Director of Education, Mr Edward Gayone, expressed concern over the dwindling fortunes of education in the metropolis and called for urgent measures to improve on the situation.
He revealed, for instance, that 43 per cent of candidates and over 61 per cent out of the 4,460 candidates who sat for the BECE and the WASSCE, respectively, in 2008 failed in English.
He described the situation as unacceptable and partly blamed it on the lack of trained teachers. At the moment, 40.6 per cent of teachers in the metropolis are pupil teachers.
The director also observed that the reduction in budgetary allocation to the educational sector could worsen the problem and, therefore, welcomed the intervention by MTN.
The Northern Regional Director of Education, Mrs Elizabeth Da-Souza, re-iterated the importance of education to development and emphasised that “success in education is dependent on literacy and numeracy”.
The Tamale Metropolitan Chief Executive, Alhaji Abdulai Harruna Friday, expressed the preparedness of the assembly to partner all stakeholders to improve on the poor academic performance.
The Executive Director of AED-GHANA:CEDEM, Mr Stephen Yaw Manu, said the organisation was aimed at helping to improve the quality of instructional services in schools through the establishment of partnerships, strengthening management for sustainability, encouraging parents to visit schools and making use of assets and successes.
The Executive Director of the MTN Foundation, Ms Mawuena Dumor, explained that it was funded by a percentage of profit after tax of the relevant operating unit, adding that since its establishment in 2007, it had refurbished the second floor of the Maternity Block of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital and also established 10 MTN ICT learning centres in all regions of the country.
The Northern Regional Minister, Mr Sumani Nayina, commended the efforts of MTN but called for the harmonisation of programmes by all stakeholders in education to achieve the desired impact.