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The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), in collaboration with Government, is implementing an educational project to improve the standards of low-performing basic schools across the country.
 
Christened "Ghana Accountability and Learning Outcomes Project," it would allow the government to invest $219 million in a comprehensive set of interventions that address constraints from teaching to learning in our schools. 
 
Through the Project, teachers, in the early grades, would be provided with continuous training, in line with the new curriculum; schools would receive teaching and learning materials; heads of schools would be trained on improved school management techniques, and supervision and assessment systems would be strengthened.
 
Ms Tara Oconnell, UNICEF Chief of Education, Ghana Country Office, said this when she joined a team from the Ministry of Education to visit selected schools in Accra to welcome the new entrants.
 
The team visited the John Wesley Methodist Basic School and the Ministry of Health Basic School in Accra and presented learning materials to the children to aid their studies.
 
John Wesley Methodist Basic School had a total number of 62 kindergartens '1' children and 49 kindergartens '2', while the Ministry of Health Basic School had 70 kindergartens '1 '(A and B) and 111 (A, B and C) class one pupils.
 
Ghana, she said, continued to be challenged by low learning outcomes in low student performance despite investment in the sector and was hopeful that the project would yield positive outcomes.
 
She commended the Ministry for working assiduously to address many of these gaps with policies that support some of the challenges at the school level.
 
Ms Oconnel said UNICEF's Country Programme had a robust education component, focusing on three things- equity and education, learning outcomes and accountability for results.
 
She advised the children to take their studies seriously to justify the confidence reposed in them by their parents for a better future.
 
The free education policy, she stated, should encourage parents to enrol their children in school, saying "parents have no excuse of financial constraints of not sending them to school."
 
Nana Baffour Awuah, the Director of Pre-Tertiary, Ministry of Education, said it was necessary to address the problem of low learning outcomes that reflect in the performance of some of the children at the Early Grade Reading Assessment, Early Grade Mathematics Assessment, and Basic Education Certificate Examination.
 
In September 2017, we introduced a new curriculum for kindergarten to primary school, which reflects the realities of the country's educational aspirations.
 
"We continue to invest in infrastructure and in the supply of teaching and learning materials for our children to improve the standards of learning outcomes in schools," he said.