CAMFED makes strides in education at Chereponi

The Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) in collaboration with the District Assembly and the Ghana Education Service at Chereponi District in the Northern Region, has impacted positively in improving academic performance at the Chereponi Senior High School.

The school which use to score four per cent passes in most of the subjects at the West Africa Certificate Examination, achieved between 80 to 100 per cent performance in 2010/11 in most of the courses, while enrolment had more than tripled from 298 to 1,065 students.

Mrs. Dolores Dickson, Country Director of CAMFED made these known when she addressed a durbar on Wednesday at Chereponi. She said the successes had been achieved as a result of the effective collaboration the NGO established with the stakeholders of the school.

The durbar was attended by the chiefs and people of Chereponi, the Member of Parliament, District Chief Executive, Executive Director of CAMFED, Madam Ann Cotton, students and the general public to share the successes of the school.

It was under the theme; “5 years of education development in Chereponi district: successes and challenges”.

Mrs. Dickson said CAMFED did not only provide ICT facility for the school but also provided full bursary packages such as school fees, uniforms, exercise books, and footwear among others to 641 females of the school since 2007, thus keeping them in school to learn with peace of mind.

She said, similar support had been extended to some female students at the basic level all geared towards promoting the interest of the girl-child, adding that, renovation of a girl’s dormitory, capacity building for the staff of the Chereponi Senior High School had all contributed to the accolade being chalked by the school.

She said CAMFED came into the district in 2007 due to the fact that it was very deprived since it was new a district that had been created, and joined forces to improve the standard of living.

Alhaji Issah Seidu Abah, District Chief Executive of Chereponi commended the contributions of the NGO in the educational development of the area; stressing that more needed to be done for a full transformation of education at the district level.

He expressed worry that despite increasing interest in education by most people in the country, a lot of children in the district were still out of school due to poverty, adding “poverty is not a barrier to education”.

Alhaji Abah urged parents to motivate their children to go to school and encourage them to learn since education was vital to development, adding "There is equally the need for serious supervision from the GES for the desired results to be achieved".

Mr. Samuel Abdulai Jabanyite, Member of Parliament for the area, was worried that despite numerous interventions to improve education, some students at the basic level in the area were unable to read and write.

He said the 21st century was driven by technology and innovation through quality education that could enhance agricultural production and urged the people to take note.**