Clara Tigenoah (seated 2nd from left), Head of Programme, CAMFED Ghana, and Dr Elizabeth Zotorvie (seated right) with other participants in the two-day workshop

CAMFED Ghana, NSS partner to promote STEM education

Daily Graphic Jul - 18 - 2024 , 09:57 3 minutes read

Camfed Ghana and the National Service Scheme (NSS) have held a two-day engagement workshop in furtherance of a mutually beneficial working partnership.

Under the partnership, CAMFED Ghana and the NSS are working to promote the study of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) by females, strategise and work to address emerging needs in the education sector, including the scale-up of CAMFED’s innovative Learner Guide programme, which is a system where young women in the CAMFED Association, who were once themselves supported by CAMFED, return to their local schools as mentors and role models.

The two organisations will also work to post female university graduates with science backgrounds to schools in CAMFED partner districts to serve as Learner Guides and deliver the ‘My Better World’ curriculum, which aims at equipping learners with new vocabulary so that they can better discuss, explore and learn.

CAMFED and the NSS will also collaborate to train National Service Personnel on the ‘My Better World’ curriculum ahead of their delivery in schools in CAMFED partner districts and schools.

The workshop brought together directors and managers of the NSS from CAMFED’s 12 regions and 38 districts of operation, as well as CAMFED Ghana staff to deliberate on matters of mutual interest.

The engagement workshop comes on the back of a partnership memorandum of understanding (MoU) that CAMFED Ghana signed with the NSS in March this year.

Strategic Plan

The Head of Programme, CAMFED Ghana, Clara Tigenoah, said the establishment of a working partnership with the NSS was within the framework of the new strategic plan that CAMFED was implementing from 2024 to 2029.

The new strategy, she said, represented a progression from CAMFED’s existing work, and the organisation planned to triple its impact over 30 years during the six years of the new strategy.

Ms Tigenoah added that the strategy was organised into three levels of work and would see CAMFED implement a comprehensive support system targeted at the most marginalised girls, enable young women to transition to secure livelihoods and join a powerful peer network of leaders, and drive adoption of best practices in national education systems at scale.

She said the expectation was that the working partnership between CAMFED Ghana and the NSS would contribute to addressing emerging needs in the education sector while contributing to the scale-up of CAMFED’s Learner Guide programme in the country.

he partnership, she said, would also contribute to fulfilling national and international education goals, particularly the Sustainable Development Goal Four (SDG4), which sought to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

The Deputy Director and Head of the Inclusion Unit, NSS, Dr Elizabeth Zotorvie, also took participants through presentations on the operations of the scheme, as well as the role of the NSS in the implementation of the Learner Guide programme in the country.

The agenda for the workshop included presentations on CAMFED’s strategic plan and operations, the Learner Guide programme, as well as CAMFED’s child protection and safeguarding policy.