Disadvantaged children get opportunity to access formal education
Ibis Ghana, a non-governmental organisation, has embarked on a five-year programme dubbed Complementary-Based Education (CBE) in four districts in the Northern Region to get about 60,000 school-age children into formal education.
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Children targeted under the programme are between the ages of eight and 14 years and attend classes between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. The children are taught to become skilful with numbers and Mathematics and to also have the ability to read and write in local languages such as Gonja, Dagaare and Birifor.
The children attend classes in the afternoon so they use the mornings to do their house chores and tasks assigned them by their parents such as farming and looking after cattle.
School enrolment
So far, 6,425 children in East and West Gonja, Bole and Sawla/Tuna/Kalba districts have been enrolled under the programme and have begun classes in their local languages. The classes will last for nine months.
Speaking at a ceremony at Sawla in the Northern Region in connection with the programme, the Programme Facilitator of Ibis Ghana, Mr Salia Ibrahim Adamu, said 2,500 learners out of the number that began the exercise had gained admission to formal schools following nine months of instruction in their local languages. He said there were 100 classes, with 25 learners in each class.
He added that children were put into the classes based on their individual performances.
"A number of the children who are grown up and cannot read or write in English are not encouraged to seek admission in conventional schools because of their age,” he said.
Presentation of bicycles
At the same ceremony, Ibis Ghana presented a total of 81 bicycles valued at GH¢23,328 to facilitators who have voluntarily taught the children over the past one year. Those facilitators who for one reason or another could not complete their term of service were honoured with various sums of money.
MDGs
Mr Adamu commended the facilitators for their services and was hopeful that replicating the programme in other parts of the country would help to reduce the number of school-age children, who were still not in school and enable the country to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
He said getting facilitators to provide voluntary service was a difficulty the programme was facing in addition to other hard-to-manage situations such as the refusal of parents to release their children for the programme, low enrolment of children with disabilities and access to hard-to reach areas.
A director at the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba Distict Directorate of Education, Mr David Dapila Dibaarnye expressed gratitude to Ibis for the intervention and promised that all efforts would be made to enrol children who show exceptional skill in mainstream schools.
He urged parents to release their children, especially the females, to attend classes which were held in the afternoon, as a means of improving their future.