PLAN INTERNATIONAL GHANA ROLLS OUT CBE INTERVENTION IN BONGO 25TH OCTOBER, 2018

An education intervention project being implemented by Plan International Ghana, christened Reaching and Teaching out-of-school Children [REACH], has commenced in the Bongo District of the Upper East Region with a district-wide enrollment figure of 625 pupils.

At a brief ceremony in Atiabiisi-Atanseka to formally welcome about 40 pupils to a REACH teaching facility in the area, a Field Education Officer with Plan Ghana Miss Victoria Bemaalia Vikpeniber, said the Project is a complimentary basic education [CBE] module by her outfit aimed at increasing transition of out-of-school children into the formal primary school system.

Field Education Officer of Plan Ghana, Miss Victoria Bemaalia Making a point at the event

She disclosed that the Project, being funded by Plan Ghana and another international NGO known as Educate A Child, was also partly funded by the Government of Ghana and targets to enroll a total of 90,000 children of school-going age who have either not attended school before or have dropped out of school. She added that the REACH Project targets to enroll such children whose ages range from 8 to 12 years in the poorest districts of the Northern, Upper East, Upper West, Volta and Eastern Regions of Ghana.

The Field Education Officer further explained that, the implementation of the REACH Project through the use of the Complimentary Basic Education module, has a skill-oriented curriculum with an average class size of 25 learners. She added that under the Project, classroom composition gives priority space to 13 girls and 12 boys per class whilst its facilitators or teachers are mostly persons resident in the communities.

She stated that the sole medium of instruction was the local language or mother-tongue and that, the module also had a flexible school timetable with daily instructional periods of not more than three [3] hours for five days in a week. Meanwhile, there is no prescribed uniform for learners to wear to class.

According to the Officer, Plan Ghana has undertaken to provide teaching and materials for all learners and facilitators throughout the project, pay monthly stipends to facilitators, supervise the classes regularly and also report to the communities on the progress of the project as well as liaise between the communities and the Assembly and the Ghana Education Service. She emphasized that parents of pupils will not bear any financial responsibilities for their children’s education apart from properly feeding the children at home and getting them prepared for school.

A Section of the learners 

She said the children will be taken through various lessons on basic literacy and numeracy as well as practical sessions for the next nine months. Meanwhile, children with any form of disabilities were also encouraged to enroll as the Project doesn’t entertain any discriminations relating to disabilities.

Miss Bemaalia disclosed that the Bongo District alone had 31 of such classes spread across 18 communities including Kadare, Kudorigor, Yidongo, Vea and Asakulsi. She however stated that there were some additional communities in the Kassena–Nankana Municipality and the Nabdam and Kassena-Nankana West districts that were also benefiting from the REACH Project.

Mr. Francis Aloyale, a staff of the Bongo District GES Directorate who represented his Director observed that the entry into the district of Plan Ghana’s education project was very timely as it will cater for the many hundreds of children whose parents were acutely poor and couldn’t afford to put them in the formal system. He pledged the support of the Ghana Education Service to ensure that the project was implemented successfully.