National Children’s Day held in Tamale

The acting National Director of World Vision Ghana, Mr Manfred Zwikla,  has urged the government to step up efforts at ensuring that all children have access to education to fast -track the development of the country.

He said education was critically linked to the quality and level of national development, adding that improving access to education for children would further give the country a competitive edge in an increasingly globalised world.

According to him, this is because the children would be empowered to achieve their maximum potential and also enhance their capacity to benefit from other opportunities to promote their welfare.

Mr Zwikla, who was speaking at this year’s National Children’s Day celebration in Tamale, also announced that the organisation had over the past five years invested more than US35 million dollars in the provision of school infrastructure, teaching and learning materials and capacity building. 

This year’s celebration brought together children from various regions in the country  and had as its theme, “Quality Education, Every Child’s Right.” The event was organised by World Vision in collaboration with other stakeholders.

Mr Zwikla explained that World Vision was a child-focused organisation with the objective of not only protecting the rights of children, but also providing them with access to health care, quality education, water, sanitation and hygiene to secure their livelihoods.

Statistics

He was worried that at the moment, 39 per cent of children between the ages of five and 17 were out of school and engaged in low-paid menial jobs particularly in the agricultural and fishing sectors.

“And according to the Ghana Statistical Service 2003 Report, nearly 1.27 million children were engaged in activities classified as child labour, including the worst form of child labour,” the director indicated.

Mr Zwikla also mentioned insufficient instructional materials, inadequate trained teachers and the various forms of child abuse as some of the factors responsible for the poor literacy rates of children. Records indicated that about 33.5 per cent of schoolchildren in the country were unable to read. 

Interventions

The director, however, commended the government for some of its initiatives such as the elimination of schools under trees, provision of free school uniforms and exercise books for needy pupils and the fee-free basic education programme.

The rest are the capitation grant, school feeding and the Untrained Teachers Diploma in Basic Education (UTDBE) programmes. 

He, however, observed that in spite of all such measures, “our young girls are still confronted with issues of early marriage, sexual abuse, female genital mutilation and the trokosi ritual enslavement”.

The director, therefore, pledged the preparedness of World Vision to partner the government and other stakeholders to ensure that the requisite child protection policies were implemented.

Development of children

In a speech read on her behalf, the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, said the government would continue to provide the necessary environment for the holistic development of children.

She said it was the determination of her outfit to create more social interventions that would inure to the benefit of children. 

The minister, therefore, advised them to take opportunities of such programmes to develop themselves, stressing, “The right to education comes with responsibilities.”  

The Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Mohammed Muniru Limuna, expressed appreciation to World Vision for being a reliable, effective and efficient partner in the country’s socio-economic development.

“I wish to take this opportunity to commend World Vision International, Ghana for their numerous interventions not only in education but also the provision of potable water, healthcare facilities and efforts made to promote agriculture for the well-being of the Ghanaian child.”