IBIS facilitates teacher training

IBIS Ghana, a non-governmental organisation, has supported forty untrained teachers in Gushegu and Karaga in the Northern Region to become fully qualified teachers under the Untrained Teachers Diploma in Basic Education (UTDBE).

With assistance from IBIS Ghana, 160 of such people would also pass out of the UTDBE course next year.

This was disclosed by Mr Charles Wontewe, Country Director for IBIS Ghana, during an assessment of its Alliance for Exchange Education (ACE) project, which was aimed at improving on basic education enrollment for the people of Gushegu and Karaga.

The IBIS project, which is a six year programme (2007 to 2013), was undertaken with the support of the Danish Embassy.

Mr Wontewe said under the programme, a total of 56 wing schools (a basic structure to serve a school in rural areas where there are none) in deprived communities had been built for the pupils with over 900 pupils passing through those schools.

He said 39 of the 56 wing schools have been adopted by the Government and transformed into fully-fledged primary schools whilst the remaining continue to function as wing schools.

“School enrolment in these areas have jumped from 9,163 in Gushegu and 7,918 in Karaga to as many as 32,015 in Gushegu and 20,844 in Karaga between 2007 and 2013”, he said.

“It is evident from this pilot project that the wing school model would put Ghana in a position to meet MDGs two and three and other targets such as Education for All and Education Strategic Plan 2010 to 2020”, he said.

Mr Stephen Adu, Director, Basic Education Unit, Ghana Education Service, expressed his appreciation to IBIS for the initiative and pledged Government’s readiness to support the effort.