Stories from William N-lanjerborr Jalulah
A total of 750 children, drawn from 25 communities in the Bongo District, who are not in school, have become beneficiaries of the Complementary Basic Education (CBE) Programme.
The issue of education for children in the region has become very critical, due to the fact that the region has many children dropping out of school, and others still out of the bracket of formal education.
It is estimated that 20,441 children are out of school in the Upper East Region.
The CBE programme is a policy of the government of Ghana with financial support from the UK Department for International Development (DFID) to provide a springboard for children within the ages of 8 and 14 years to get into formal school after a period of complementary basic education.
At the Bongo District launch of the programme at Atampiisi, the Country Director of Afrikid Ghana, a child rights non-governmental organisation implementing the Programme, Mr. Nicholas Kumah, announced that after a period of animation and recruitment exercises, 30 classes had been sited within 25 communities in the Bongo District, and 30 local young volunteers recruited to serve as facilitators for the classes.
The 30 facilitators, made up of 18 females and 12 males, through the guidance and tutorship of master trainers, have been prepared through 15 days of residential training to teach these vulnerable 750 children.
Mr. Kumah said the required teaching and learning materials for the nine months classes have been provided for both learners and facilitators. The facilitators are given s monthly allowance of GH¢45, with arrangements in place to provide NHIS and bicycles for them, as well as educational support for those who would have the opportunity to make progress in the area of education.
According to him, a baseline survey, in collaboration with the Department of Community Development, had been carried out to give a clear picture of the out-of-school children in the beneficiary communities.
The programme is going for three years, and the Director said communities that would do well would get the chance to continue.
Mr. Kumah told teachers that the programme was an initiative of the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service, thus, they should see it as paving way for high enrollment for their schools, come next academic year, and give it all the support.
The District Director of Education, Mr. Emmanuel Zumakpeh, said the programme was structured in such a way as to achieve multiple objectives.
He said to bridge the gender gap, each class of 25 pupils will comprise 13 girls and 12 boys. Also, 60% of all facilitators will be females.
The Paramount Chief of the Bongo Traditional Area, Naba Baba Salifu Atamale Lemyarum, was convinced that the programme was the panacea for the high rate of school dropout and teenage pregnancy which had affected the standard of education in the area.