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Some of the learners in the CBE class during the visit.
Some of the learners in the CBE class during the visit.

8,000 Out-of-school children enrolled in formal schools

More than 8,000 out-of-school children in the Kpandai District in the Northern Region have been enrolled in formal schools through the Complementary Basic Education (CBE) programme since 2013 to date.

The children aged between eight and 14 years were taken through nine months of numeracy and literacy skills in their mother tongue and are now at various levels in basic schools in the district.

Tour

Among some of the basic schools in the district where some former CBE learners have been enrolled is the Tenglinto District Assembly (DA) Primary and Junior High School (JHS) where more than 400 former CBE learners have been enrolled.

The Headmaster of the school, Mr Nikum Kaldo, during a tour of some of the schools in the district last Friday, said the CBE learners enrolled in the school had settled in quickly and were very active in class, as well as in co-curricular activities.

He disclosed that most of the children were unable to express themselves in English initially but after about a month or two, they had picked up and become more interactive in class.

Implementation

The Ibis Ghana is implementing the five-year CBE programme in the Kpandai District and has targeted to enrol 10,000 out-of-school children into formal schools in the district over the five-year period.

A project officer of Ibis at Kpandai, Mr Zachariah Sandow, who conducted journalist round the schools during the tour said though the programme would end in 2018, the district assembly had been adequately prepared to take over from the organisation.

He said a number of communities were far from schools and that made it difficult for the children to access formal education.

Facilitators

Despite the success of the CBE programme in the district, facilitators have expressed concern over the attitude of parents.

A facilitator at Jetima community, Mr Ugan Kofi, said parents refused to buy basic needs such as school uniforms, sandals and stationery for their children, and added that it was affecting the morale of some of those children.

Background

In 2013, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in partnership with some non-governmental organisations (NGOs), started a five-year CBE programme across five regions of the country.

The goal was to enrol 200,000 children between the ages of eight and 14 who are out of school. Ibis Ghana was selected to implement the CBE programme in the Kpandai District in the Northern Region.

The CBE programme is in its fourth year in the district and more than 8,000 children have transitioned into formal school.

The CBE learners are now a major source of enrolment in basic schools in the district.

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