THE Vice-President, Mr John Mahama, at the weekend inaugurated an education initiative aimed at ensuring quality basic education delivery for disadvantaged children, particularly girls in northern Ghana.
The 10-year project, dubbed: “Tackling Education Inclusively” (TENI), will improve pupils’ retention, performance and transition from the primary to the junior high school (JHS) level.
The project, which was launched at Walewale, will cover the northern sector with focus in three deprived districts of West Mamprusi in the Northern, Talensi-Nabdam in the Upper East and Jirapa in the Upper West regions.
It is being implemented by the Voluntary Services Overseas Ghana (VSOG), an international development organisation, in collaboration with some local partners with support from the Comic Relief UK, a charity organisation.
The Vice-President urged the people to give priority attention to the education of their children instead of channelling their resources into unproductive ventures, since the value of education could not be quantified.
He noted that the lackadaisical attitude of most parents and guardians towards education in the north had resulted in the migration of the youth to the southern parts of the country to engage in labour-intensive jobs such as “kayaye” and stressed that it was preferable to live in “poverty in dignity to wealth in humiliation”.
According to the Vice-Persident, the government had established various social interventions in the education sector such as the provision of free school uniforms and books ; increased the Capitation Grant and incentives for rural teachers.
“Parents and guardians have, therefore, no reason not to enrol their children and wards in school,” Mr Mahama indicated, and further entreated chiefs and opinion leaders to take keen interest in school administration in their respective communities.
The Country Director of the VSOG, Mr Amidu Ibrahim Tanko, explained that the first phase of the project would cover the period between 2009 and 2013.
He mentioned the activities to include strengthening of community groups to identify and modify socio-cultural practices that affect girls’ education and the empowerment of mothers’ economic status by linking them with existing livelihood interventions.
The director said it would also improve teacher availability through placement of 500 national volunteer teachers & advocacy for effective teacher support and management.
It will further identify female role models and mentor girls at risk of dropping out of school and establish and strengthen girls’ clubs and peer groups, among other interventions.
Mr Tanko also indicated that change could only be achieved when it came from within an individual, community, family, organisation or district.
“TENI, therefore, engages multiple stakeholders and builds on best practices to tackle underlying causes that prevent children completing and performing in school, including socio-cultural beliefs, poverty barriers, the school environment and quality of teaching and learning,” he stated.
Speaking on the theme: “Working together to achieve systematic change in education in northern Ghana,” the West Mamprusi District Chief Executive, Sulley Abudu Zakaria, said as part of its quest to improve academic excellence in the district, the assembly had released some funds to the district directorate of education to organise a best teacher awards ceremony to reward hard work.
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