USAID inaugurates school project for Suhyen SDA JHS

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on Thursday inaugurated a three-unit classroom with an office and staff common room for the Suhyen Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Junior High School (JHS).

The school block was part of the Transition and Persistence Project (TAP) funded by USAID and implemented by the Plan Ghana, a non-governmental organization.

The major objectives of the TAP project are to remove barriers to enrolment and retention, to support child-friendly learning, encourage community ownership and school performance assessment meetings as well as micro-grants for repairs in schools.

Ms Marisol Perez, Director, USAID/Ghana Education Office, speaking at the inaugural ceremony, said Ghana had made great progress in improving access to education, achieving 96 per cent of children enrolment in primary school.

She said despite tremendous gains in primary school enrolment, too many children either dropped out before reaching JHS or failed to pass the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).

Ms Marisol said if Ghana was to achieve its full economic potential, those children must not be left out.

She said government needed to provide trained teachers and sufficient textbooks and other educational and learning materials and intensify supervision in schools and teachers to ensure they performed effectively.