Education fundamental for equitable society
Investing in the literacy skills of pupils from the basic level is a recipe for the creation of an equitable society, the Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum has said.
At the ceremony yesterday to draw the curtain on a nine-year literacy project between the Ministry of Education (MoE), the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on how to improve reading skills among pupils in public primary schools, Dr Adutwum explained that success was impossible with weak education fundamentals.
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"We have to transform the fortunes of our nation through education.
Only then can we create a country that can withstand the shock of any challenge.
We have to plant the seeds of success in our children and we have to nurture them and build on it.
We need to create a more equitable system if we aim to build a better society, where everybody knows the worth of literacy," he said.
Ceremony
It brought together representatives from the USAID Department of Education, MoE, GES, heads of educational agencies, non-governmental organisations, printers, distributors among others.
Notable among them were; Deputy Minister of Education, Reverend John Ntim Fordjour, Chief Director at the MoE, Divine Yao Ayidzoe, Director-General of the GES, Dr Eric Nkansah among others.
Opportunities
Dr Adutwum added that life was all about opportunities, outcomes and our educational system had a role to play in making that possible.
“If we leave the children behind, we don't provide the foundation, opportunities for them to improve, we are not going anywhere.
We have to plant the seeds of success in our children, nurture and build on them,” he said.
Charge
Additionally, the minister charged all stakeholders involved in the partnership to put to good use all what was learnt during the period.
“We need to sustain it and ensure that the best practices are implemented.
Let us leverage what we’ve learnt from the partnership and make good use of it.
We need to create a society where the majority of the youth will have a place, the world is not waiting for us,” he said.
Background
The partnership, under the name ‘The Learning activity’ was a $96.6 million activity aligned with USAID's global goal of "all children reading" that supports MOE, Ghana Education, GES and affiliated institutions to improve reading performance for early grade pupils in both Ghanaian languages and English.
Implemented by Family Health International (FHI) 360, the project was executed through four programmes.
Thus, the Early Grade Reading Program (EGRP), the Transition to English (T2E1) Program, the National Reading Radio Program (NRRP), and the T2E Plus2 program with additional printing of the Learning English teaching and learning materials (TLMs) for non-T2E Plus schools.
For her part, the USAID Mission Director, Kimberly Rosen, stated that reading at an early age improved educational outcomes and long-term livelihoods.
“The collaboration between USAID and the Ministry of Education through the Learning Activity is one of the key partnerships between Ghana and the United States.
This activity provided over 15 million high-quality teaching, learning and reading materials including teacher guides, pupil books, classroom materials, braille materials for children with low or no vision.
We want the best for our children,” she said.
Support
Furthermore, she touched on the readiness of her outfit to support the Ministry of Education and its agencies.
“We are committed to supporting the ministry and strengthening the human and institutional capacity of its agencies to Improve children's reading performance,” she noted.
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