<<Print>>

Nana Kwadwo Owu 11, Tain District Deputy Director of Education, has said that parents' apathy had contributed to indiscipline and delinquency among children in the country. He said parents no longer sought the welfare of their children but allow them to provide their own basic needs, education, health and accommodation which are the sole responsibilities of parents. Nana K2wadwo Owu said this at the launch of a Complementary Basic Education (CBE) Project at Nsawkaw in the Tain District. The Ministry of Education (MoE) with support from the Department For International Development (DFID) is undertaking the project to reach 120,000 children throughout the country. It is a functional literacy programme for Out-of-School Children between eight and 14 years to access a standard nine-month functional literacy education in literacy, numeracy and writing skills in their mother tongues and to re-integrate into the formal school system at the beginning of the 2014/2015 academic year. The programme, which is community-owned and demand-driven, is being implemented through some NGOs including ActionAid, Ghana in collaboration with the Ghana Education Service (GES). Nana Kwadwo Owu urged parents to encourage and make efforts to sustain the interest of their children to stay in the classroom with the provision of the necessary learning materials needed to facilitate their education. He said most children dropped out of school because they cannot be in school without food and be mocked by their colleagues when shabbily dressed. Nana Kwadwo Owu urged parents to accompany their children at the basic level to school to ensure they were in school and visit them in school frequently to enquire about their conduct and performance. Mr Jones Samuel Tawiah, Tain District Chief Executive, expressed concern about the poor performance of students in the Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) in the District in spite of efforts by the government and NGOs in the education sector. He said the sector was allocated GHC532, 539.00 representing 27.2 per cent of the Assembly�s budget of GHC1, 959,845.00. Mr Tawiah urged teachers to desist from industrial actions and provide the pupils with quality tuition because without committed teachers all efforts to improve education would not be successful. He commended ActionAid Ghana for the project to support school drop-outs and improve on the country�s human resource base. Mr Tawiah suggested that more attention should be paid to technical and vocational training to help in the development of the individual and the nation. Ms Christina Amarchey, Programme Manager of Action Aid Ghana in charge of the Brong Ahafo Region, said the NGO was committed to securing free, compulsory quality education for school drop-outs. She said the project was being implemented in three districts in the Region, Tain, Banda and Atebubu Amantin for 1,500 children with 500 from each district. Ms Amarchey said there would be 20 classes in 15 communities for nine months with a short break in January and April next year to enable the facilitators attend refresher training. She said 25 children had registered since the project began on October 14 and expressed the hope that they would be taken through the nine months classes in order to join formal education next academic year. Ms Amarchey appealed to the MoE, traditional authorities and parents, to ensure that children�s right to education guaranteed in the 1992 Constitution is achieved.