Education in the Yendi Municipality has seen an improvement with the commission of a senior high school. The school, Sheik Mohammed Bin Obaid Al-Maktoum Senior High School was completed in November, 2016, and has a student population of 60.
It is the second educational institution built in northern Ghana by the Al Maktoum Foundation with the first branch in Tamale. Courses offered in the school include general arts, science and home economics. The school also offers ICT and Arabic as its major courses. The goal behind the establishment of the school is to provide quality education in ICT and Arabic to students.
It would be recalled that a government directive clearly stated that beginning in 2017, senior high school students will have to study Arabic like they do the English language and that Arabic will be introduced at the basic level in 2018 and will be on examinations. It is therefore in this regard that emphasis would be placed on the study of Arabic in the school. The Foundation also aims at building a university in the near future.
Al-Maktoum Foundation (AMF) was formed in 1997 under the royal patronage of His Highness Sheik Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, United Arab Emirates’ (UAE’s) minister of finance and Dubai’s deputy ruler as a humanitarian charity organization registered in the Irish Republic.
In January 2000, His Highness Sheikh Hamdan directed AMF to move its headquarters to its newly opened Dubai office. Being a UAE-sponsored organization, AMF’s idea of charity and humanitarianism is deeply rooted in the nation’s long heritage of aid and support to the needy.
The country’s founders, the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahayan and the late Sheikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, were pioneers in building bridges and opening doors for charity and educational work. Under their leadership, the UAE became one of the most active donors worldwide.
UAE’s current leadership exemplified in the President HH Sheikh Khalifah Bin Zayed Al Nahayan and the Vice President and Prime Minister HH Sheikh Muhammad Bin Rashid AL Maktoum, has continued the same policy and shown extended support to the growing charity community of the UAE.
Therefore, it was natural for AMF to adopt the noble goal of consolidating its charity work across the world, in order to relieve the poor and make sure humanitarian aid reaches all those who are desperately in need wherever they are.
The Kampakuya Naa and Acting President of the Dagbon Traditional Council, Abdulai Yakubu Andani, in a speech read on his behalf by Mr. Abdulai Sulemana, at the inauguration of the Sheikh Mohammed Bin Obaid Al- Maktoum Senior High School at Yendi, thanked the Al-Maktoum Foundation for the initiative and urged management of the school to pay attention to the two major courses (ICT /ARABIC).
The Kampakuya Naa also implored the PTA to deepen their partnership with teachers in order for them to be motivated. Regular supervision, he said, should always be done to ensure high standards of teaching and learning. He also asked that the Al- Maktoum Foundation as well as authorities of the school should not hesitate to ask for any support.
Alhaji Mohammed Haroon “Cambodia,” the northern regional director of education, who was the guest speaker at the ceremony, urged management of the school to try as much as possible to register the school with the West African Examination Council (WAEC) for a WAEC registration number to ensure that students write the WAEC examinations with ease. Community leaders, he noted, should play their individual roles in the advancement of the school by maintaining the facility given to them as well as maintaining discipline among parents, students and teachers.