33: Ghanaian Education Weekly Review (4/3 – 4/9)

Plan Ghana gives kids a chance

Plan Ghana, an international non-governmental organization (NGO), has covered the costs of basic education for over 9,000 out-of-school children in the Northern Region. This is part of a broader partnership between Plan Ghana and the Ministry of Education to help address the enrollment crisis in the northern parts of Ghana. It is estimated that in the Northern, Upper West, and Upper East Regions, there are over 440,000 children who are not in school.

 

Generous couple improving teacher education

Professor Ebenezer Jackson and his wife, Theodosia, have established a foundation aimed at creating a level playing field for aspiring teachers who lack financial resources. The initial launch of “The Jackson Foundation” included a ceremony where 15 “exception but needy” students were each awarded a GHC3,500 scholarship for teacher training at the Jackson College of Education (JCE), which the couple fouded in 2009. Jacob Kor, Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), thanked them again for all the work they had done at JCE and applauded their scholarship effort.

 

Help from UNICEF & USAID

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has collaborated with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to donate $100,000 worth of devices and basic screening materials. The generous donation is aimed at better equipping the assessment centers to help identify physical and mental disabilities among children. Per Ghana’s UNICEF representative, Susan Namondo Ngongi: “In the last decade, Ghana has made tremendous progress in getting more children into school especially at the kindergarten and basic education level…yet children with disability still remained the most disadvantaged when it comes to getting good education. Children with disability are often denied education because the school buildings are not adaptable for them or the teacher doesn’t know how to make sure they are included. So we wish to have teachers who are trained to identify the problems of the children.” The attention that inclusive education is getting is certainly encouraging.

 

Also…

India has pledged its support for math and science education in Ghana as part of its “One District, One Factory” initiative.

Minster of Education bans the importation of exercise books for public schools.

Regional director of education in the Western Region was reported to have caned a teacher at the Well Rose Methodist School in Sekondi…

…The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has since publicly condemned the regional director’s actions.