Ghana to benefit from Education Initiative

Accra, Nov. 20, GNA - Ghana has been selected as one of the 24 countries to benefit financially from the Education For All (EFA) Fast Track Initiative (FTI).

The selection was based on incentive framework to provide assistance to countries that have demonstrated commitment to the goals of universal primary education.

Mr Alex Tettey-Enyo, Interim Chairman of the Education for All (EFA) Programme, said this on Thursday at the presentation of a document on Ghana's EFA action plan work programme 2003 to 2015.

The document was on the outcome of activities that related to the Education Strategic Programme (ESP) of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MOEYS).

It was also the findings of a national EFA Committee set up in July 2002 to initiate moves for its preparation with sponsorship from UNESCO.

The document targeted a percentage reduction in untrained teachers from 21.2 per cent at the primary level and 12.8 per cent at the Junior Secondary School (JSS) Level to not more than five per cent in 2015 across the basic level.

It would examine the new curriculum for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) from 2004, review the basic curriculum in 2006 and also provide 50 per cent of Junior Secondary School (JSS) with workshops and improve on information, education and communication programmes to promote science, technical and vocational education and training.

Mr Tettey-Enyo said the document was in line with the UN-Convention on Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which had established education of the child as an inalienable right.

He said it was the outcome of the 2000 World Forum on Education in Dakar, which reaffirmed the vision of the Jomtien, Thailand conference in 1990.

Mr Tettey-Enyo said the Dakar Forum called for a new level of commitment to programmes designed to achieve targets that had been stated regularly in the past but rarely delivered.

He said by the Dakar re-affirmation, every country was urged to prepare an action plan by the end of 2002 that must be developed through government's leadership in close and systematic consultation with civil society.

Mr Tettey-Enyo said since the Dakar conference, the MOEYS had made efforts to prepare the action plan to achieve the declaration of the international community, which stated that; " no country seriously committed to EFA with a credible plan would be thwarted in their achievement of this goal by lack of resources".

He said before the Dakar Forum, Ghana had demonstrated its commitment to EFA goals by launching elaborate programmes such as the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE), Girls' Education and Adult Literacy.

Mr Tettey-Enyo said Ghana had gathered considerable experience from policy formulation strategies and implementation processes associated with these programmes and had established the necessary structures for consultation among the sectors, decentralised institutions, development partners and civil society.

Mr Atto Essuman, Chief Director of MOEYS, who received the document, urged authorities involved to work hard towards the implementation of the plan to achieve its goals.