Nkoranza (B/A) May 3 GNA - The Nkoranza District has been allocated 787 million cedis to carry out programmes to improve education under the Pilot Programmatic Scheme (PPS) funded by the World Bank and Ghana Government.
The PPS is an 84 million dollars programme aimed at promoting the education of all school-going age children from kindergarten to junior secondary school level.
The World Bank is supporting the programme with 74 million dollars while the Government of Ghana contributes 10 million dollars. Under the programme 40 deprived districts in the country have been selected by the Bank and the Government to start the implementation of the programme for a five-year period.
Nkoranza, Wenchi, Sene and Atebubu Districts in the Brong Ahafo Region are the beneficiaries of the programme.
Mr Kwabena Agyeman-Badu, District Director of Education announced this when briefing members of the District Education oversight committee on programmes and activities outlined by the Directorate towards the utilisation of a grant for the scheme.
Mr Agyeman-Badu said activities designed for the scheme were geared towards the three main components of the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) programme to enhance its successful implementation. The components are increasing access and participation in all school communities, ensuring efficiency in teaching and learning and ensuring improvement in management and efficiency in all schools.
The District Director said the 787 million cedis would cover programmes and activities arranged from May to December 2004 after which another programme would be designed and implemented in 2005. Among the programmes for the promotion of education in the District are organisation of workshops and in-service training courses for teachers and other stakeholders of education, the provision of recreational facilities in schools to sustain children's interests in education and the promotion of girls' education.
Mr Agyeman-Badu said Circuit Supervisors of Education would be supported to intensify their visits to schools to assist teachers to put up their best to enhance education.
He appealed to members of the District Education Oversight Committee to encourage parents to enrol their school-going-age children in schools.
With this intervention, all children in basic schools in the District would not pay any school fees as from September 2004, notably culture, sports and examination fees, the District Director of Education said.
The Presiding Member of the Nkoranza District Assembly, Mr Adjei Yeboah, who chaired the meeting commended Mr Agyeman-Badu and the staff of the Directorate for their initiative and urged them not to relent in efforts and pledged the Assembly's continued support to enhance education in the area.
The District Coordinating Director, Mr Anaclateus Fakoo Dozie, expressed appreciation for the sterling performance of Mr Agyeman-Badu in improving the standard of education in the District.
