Two districts get 3 million dollar education support

Gushegu (N/R), Nov. 2, GNA - Ibis West Africa a non-governmental organisation, has launched a three million-dollar education programme using the wing school concept to extend free basic education to two districts of the Northern Region.

The programme, known as Alliance for Change in Education under Ibis, would provide exercise books, teaching and learning materials and other teaching aids to the children in Gushegu and Karaga districts to attend school up to class three as well as giving incentives to teachers. The project is aiming at enrolling 4,000 children in the two districts within three years to ensure that 25 per cent of children of school going age, particularly girls, are enrolled in schools. The first batch of 1,001 children had been recruited in the two districts for the start of the three-year programme.

A consortium of three Danish organisations and their Ghanaian counterparts manage the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) funded project with Ibis West Africa as the lead NGO. Mr. Hamza Tijani, Project Director of Ibis West Africa, said on Thursday that the two districts were chosen because children walk more than 12 kilometres to the nearest school.

He said Ibis and its development partners were also sensitising parents in the districts to send their children, especially girls, to school to benefit from the ACE project. The project has already recruited and trained 37 community teachers to manage the 37 established wing schools in the two districts.

Mr. Tijani said the teachers would be teaching the children in their mother tongue and that Ibis was also strengthening institutions relevant in education to ensure that the programme succeeded. He mentioned the School for Life, Ghana Education Service (GES), Integrated Development Centre, Northern Network for Education Development and the Bagabaga Training College as partners in the programme.

Madam Karen Brigitte Rasmusen, Regional Director of Ibis West Africa, said rural education was important for a country's development as well as meeting people's welfare especially in income generation and decision-making.

She said Ibis intervention was to help the country to achieve its Millennium Development Goals and Education for All. She said Ghana's achievements in the education sector were impressive but there was a significant imbalance that showed disparities between rural and urban education.

Mr. Mahama Abukari, Gushegu District Chief Executive, said he would support the programme by helping with infrastructure and allowance for the recruited community teachers. Mr. John Kwasi Hobenu, Northern Regional Director of Education, commended Ibis and its development partners in education for stepping in to help improve education in the region.