11,350 Out-of-school children ready for formal education
About 11,350 out-of-school children trained under the School for Life’s Complementary Basic Education (CBE) programme in seven districts in the Northern Region have graduated to further enrol into the formal education sector in September, this year.
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This year’s graduation saw 49 per cent males and 51 per cent females transitioned into the formal education system.
The programme is aimed at providing out-of-school children and school-age children an opportunity to acquire elementary literacy and numeracy in their mother tongue.
The CBE, which is a flagship programme under the School for Life (SFL) with funding from the USAID, enrolled children from seven districts — Sagnarigu, Mion, Central Gonja, Saboba, Nanumba South, Yendi and Kunbumgu districts in the Northern Region — and offered them a nine-month training in their mother tongue to enable them to enrol into the formal education system.
This initiative is also geared towards reducing the number of school dropout in the Northern Region.
Leaners
Before the graduation, the learners were asked to read and write some of the things that were taught in class as a way of assessing their level of understanding.
Three languages, Dagbani, Gonja and Likpakpaln, were used in the teaching and learning process, taking into consideration the native language spoken in each of the districts.
Ceremony
The facilitator for the Katariga community in the Sagnarigu District, Mr Yakubu Sulemana, in an interview noted that the CBE classes had improved the reading ability of the children, adding that they could now read and write in the mother tongue after the nine months of training.
The District Coordinator for the districts under the CBE programme, Mr Imoro Abdulai, expressed concern about the lack of interest by some parents in enrolling and maintaining their children in the CBE programme.
According to him, some children also dropped out during the training which was worrying and further appealed to parents to embrace such initiatives
Touching on the integration process, Mr Abdulai explained that the children had the liberty to select a school of their choice which they wanted to attend.
He revealed that the School for Life was able to monitor and evaluate the performance of the children through a tracking system after the integration.