Pencils of Promise supports education in Lower Manya Municipality
A non-governmental Organisation (NGO) focused on promoting quality education across the country, Pencils of Promise (PoP), has cut the sod for the construction of a six-unit classroom project for the Nuaso Anglican Primary School in the Lower Manya Municipality in the Eastern Region.
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The project, which is in collaboration with American rapper, Jeffrey Atkins, whose stage name is Ja Rule, seeks to augment the government and local authority efforts to empower and transform the lives of young people by giving them access to quality education for a brighter future.
The initiative is also a response to an appeal for support by the municipality following a 2020 engineering assessment that declared the building a death trap which needed to be pulled down immediately.
Building Knowledge
The Chief Executive Officer of the PoP, Kailee Scales, said cutting the sod to lay the foundation for the classroom block was not just a construction of a physical structure but also symbolised building the pillars of knowledge and hope for quality education.
Ms Scales also commended the Nuaso community for its dedication and active participation in the project, stressing that their contributions and unwavering support underscored the collective belief in the transformative power of education.
The Country Director of the PoP, Freeman Gobah, said the NGO’s core strategy was the engagement of communities, bringing local leaders to the table and guiding them through the project execution process to establish ownership for sustainability.
“We have leveraged technology (internet and digital devices) to improve teaching and learning which can transform the educational landscape. “The PoP has cumulatively deployed over 10,330 electronic devices to 103 primary schools located in underserved communities of Ghana, impacting over 15,450 students and 824 teachers,” he added.
In addition to constructing schools, he said his outfit had successfully implemented teacher support and WASH programmes in underserved basic schools that had significantly addressed learning outcomes, especially proficiency levels in literacy, and also created safer school environments for learners to stay in school.
Community pillar
Ja Rule, for his part, said he strongly believed that education is the pillar of a community and that was why he was dedicated to working with the PoP in its continuous pursuit of improving education for young people across the country.
“I’m proud to have the audacity to come out here and build a school in the middle of Africa for my people. I know that this is going to be an opportunity that will last for many, many years to come,” the rapper added.
The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for the Lower Manya Municipal Assembly, Simon Kweku Tetteh, said the construction of the classroom block was going to improve teaching and learning in the school and by extension, the municipality as a whole.
