785 Learners to join formal school in Sept
Some adult learners who have successfully completed a nine-month literacy and numeracy skills training in the Complementary Basic Education (CBE) programme in the Tolon District in the Northern Region will join their counterparts in the formal school at the beginning of the new academic year.
Advertisement
Out of a total number of 788 children who have never been to school but only benefited from the nine-month numeracy skills training, 785 children aged between eight and 14 will join their counterparts in formal schools in September.
Beneficiaries
The beneficiaries, comprising 399 girls and 389 boys, were expected to be transitioned into the formal school system in September this year, but three of them unfortunately died before they could do so as a result of illness, leaving 785 to join their counterparts in formal schools in the district.
The Tolon District Coordinator of World Education, the non-governmental organisation (NGO) implementing the CBE programme in the Tolon District, Mr Ayub Mohammed Sheriff, disclosed this at a ceremony to honour 30 facilitators who took the learners through the nine-month training in the Tolon District last Monday.
The programme is aimed at supporting the Government of Ghana’s (GOG) efforts to achieve Universal Primary Education Coverage, which is to ensure that every child of school age is attending school in line with the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4).
Facilitators
The facilitators, who are also community volunteers made up of eight females and 22 males, were presented with certificates and bicycles at the ceremony while Mr Ibrahim Abdul Gayiu and Madam Sharatu Alhassan from the Kparigu and Chirefuyili communities respectively were adjudged the best male and female facilitators for the CBE programme in the district.
They were presented with an unspecified amount of money for distinguishing themselves under the programme.
The learners were also presented with certificates at the ceremony.
At the ceremony, Mr Sheriff commended the facilitators for ensuring that all the children recruited for the programme had graduated, except the three children who passed on as a result of ill health.
He announced that a total of 800 learners were to be recruited for the next cycle of the CBE programme in 2018 and would be transitioned into formal schools for the 2018/2019 academic year, adding that the programme, which was being supported by the United Kingdom (UK) Department For International Development (DFID), Crown Agents and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) would end in 2018.
He gave an assurance that World Education would continue to collaborate with all stakeholders in the educational sector in the districts to roll out the intervention.
Challenges
Mr Sheriff mentioned some of the challenges hampering the smooth implementation of the CBE programme and enrolment in formal schools in general in the district as lack of appreciation of the importance of education by parents in the district.
According to him, some parents in the district preferred to engage their children on the farm and in other household chores instead of allowing them to join the CBE programme or enrolling them in formal schools, while others also pushed their children into head portering (Kayayei) in urban centres during the dry season, thereby denying them of education.
Consequently, he said World Education, as part of its mandate to implement the CBE programme, had also intensified its community sensitisation programme in rural communities in the district to educate parents on the importance of education and the need to enrol their children in schools.
Mr Sheriff entreated parents in the beneficiary communities of the CBE programme in the district to continue to support their children as they entered the formal school, adding that it would be disappointing if they neglected their responsibilities. He cautioned them against pushing their girl children to work as head porters as a result of poverty and advised them to rather support them to stay in school and complete and even continue to a higher level.
Appreciation
A representative of the Tolon District Education Director, Mr Adamu Seidu, commended World Education for complementing the efforts of the Education Directorate in the district towards enrolment and expressed the hope that the CBE programme would be extended after the end date of 2018 to enable more out-of-school children in the district to benefit from it.