Ghana to get assistance for pre-school education

Ghana has been selected to benefit from a programme by the New York University (NYU) and the United Nations (UN) to improve pre-school education.
Under the programme, more teachers would be trained to take care of pre-schools which currently lack the requisite number of trained teachers.

The number of trained pre-school teachers in Ghana now is 297.

President John Mahama made this known in an interactive session with lecturers and students of the New York University in Manhattan, New York on Friday.

Underscoring the importance of pre-school education in the formative years of a child, President Mahama said that the issue of access to quality education, including pre-school learning, was one of his campaign promises in the education sector.

President Mahama indicated that the Ministry of Education was working to roll out a programme to improve pre-school education in Ghana.

He said the support from the UN and NYU would feed into that agenda.

He told the large gathering that Ghana had been pursuing the UN Millennium Development Goals to meet the goal of universal enrolment in schools.

The President stated that more than 90 per cent of children of school going age were now in School, adding that the country has also achieved gender parity in terms of enrolment.

One challenge, he said, was how to attract enough trained teachers into the schools including the pre-school sub-sector.

In that direction, he said incentive packages were being introduced to attract and retain the requisite personnel.

Touching on other issues, President Mahama indicated that the government was ready to assist those abroad who intended to set up businesses in Ghana to help solve unemployment in the country.

On the issue of fighting terrorism and its ramifications for Ghana, President Mahama acknowledged that there could be asymmetrical attacks on Ghana in view of its unflinching support against terrorist acts, namely Ghana’s participation in the Malian issue.

It was, therefore, prudent he said, for the country to equip its security forces and train them as well to contain and deal with such scenarios.

The lively interactive forum, which was attended by senior government officials, also saw President Mahama delving into his school days and his experiences as a young man, as captured in his novel, “My first coup d’état

Daily Graphic/Ghana