Ho Catholic Diocese offers scholarships to 210 girls
Two hundred and ten girls selected from 45 deprived basic and senior high schools in the Ho Catholic Diocese are to benefit from a three-year scholarship package aimed at promoting girl-child education in the Volta Region.
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The scholarship forms part of the second phase of a girls’ sensitisation programme being run by the diocese with funding from a German missionary agency for children, Kindermissionswerk.
The sensitisation on girl-child education programme will assist a targeted number of 4,080 girls from basic schools to achieve higher grades in the core subjects so they will gain admission to the senior high schools.
Teacher training
Aside from this, the diocese will also implement the phase two of the teachers training programme which focuses on building the capacity of teachers in the core subjects, as well as Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and religious and moral education in the 45 deprived primary and junior high schools.
A total of 315 teachers who teach the core subjects will be provided with practical and effective skills within a period of three years to enhance the teaching of these subjects at the upper primary and JHS level.
This is to help improve the performance of students in these subjects in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
Timeliness of programmes
Speaking at the launch of the two programmes, the acting Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr Jacob Kor, described the two programmes as timely, especially with the scholarship package, taking into consideration the economic situation of the girls in the deprived communities.
Various studies, he said, had shown that students whose parents were from a higher socio-economic background performed better than their counterparts whose parents were in the lower socio-economic bracket.
He appealed to the beneficiary teachers to make good use of the opportunity given them and assist the children to perform well to show the success of the programmes.
Aims of education
The Catholic Bishop for the Ho Diocese, Most Reverend Francis A.K. Lodonu, said one of the aims of education was character building and moral and religious development, which breeds right judgement, responsibility, purity in action and thoughts and honesty, among others.
“For this reason, I think it is time we began to assess whether the manner in which teaching and learning are going on in this country will help us attain the aims of education,” he said.
Using his teaching experience as motivation, the bishop called on teachers not to focus on monetary gains but sacrifice a little for the good of their students. He added: “The desire and pride of all teachers should be that of uplifting our children.”
He also suggested that teachers should be trained for three years on campus and one year off campus in a form of housemanship to enable them to cover their syllabus and come out as well-trained teachers.