The DC Kuraa, a farming community in the Sang district of the Northern Region has wholehearted accepted the Ghana Complementary Basic Education (CBE) program to help out-of- school children in the community. The DC Kuraa, which has a population of about 1,873 are mainly peasant farmer cultivating yam, maize and groundnut.
The community’s major challenges are potable drinking water and school facilities for children, especially, a kindergarten. The (CBE) program which is being sponsored by DFID, encourages enrolment of more girls because the stakeholders in education have realized that girls are lagging behind.
The phase one of the program targeted 25,000 out-of-school children with 9 implementing civil society organizations. Thirty-four (34) districts in four regions namely Northern, Upper East, Upper West and Brong Ahafo. According to School for Life (SFL), a lead advocate of CBE program, 55,000 out-of-school children in four regions with Ashanti region recently added to the 4 to make the number five.
The program remains an advocacy priority for (SFL) in collaboration with ministry of education, Ghana education service and civil society organizations for the period of three years.
Seventy (70) communities were sensitized by the program and 62 needy communities out of the 70 will be selected in terms of target learners. Twenty five (25) children will then be selected to start the literacy classes.
The program which is a community-based allows members of the communities to choose literacy facilitator who understands the local language very well. The community also has a choice to choose two days out of the seven working days as off-days so that parents can engage the children in either household chores or in farming activities.
The DC Kuraa after a careful analysis of the program says they cannot miss the opportunity suggesting that each household should contribute tremendously to support the literacy facilitator who will be receiving intensive training from school for life before the commencement of literacy classes in October.
At a Sensitization durbar on out-of-school children in DC Kuraa and Mion communities, women and elders embraced the program and promised to ensure its success. They have also committed themselves to performing all farming activities for the literacy facilitator so that he can concentrate on educating the children.
Madam Nkunabu Laboo who spoke passionately about education in the area commended school for life for their intervention and promised their full support for the program. She appealed to School for Life to help them with a kindergarten. According to her, too many road accidents have claimed several lives including three school children on the Tamale-Yendi road. The children, she explained, were on their way to school in an adjacent community, Puriya, when they met their untimely deaths. She said it’s a source of concern to all parents in the community and appealed to Sang district education directorate and NGOs to help them with a primary school.
The Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Officer in charge of literacy at School for Life, Alhaji Alhassan Andani, assured the communities of School for Life’s commitment in educating the less privileged in the area.
He said officers of Tamale from SFL office as well as donors will pay periodical visits to the community to assess the progress of the out-of- school children. He urged community members, especially the women, not to be discouraged about educational problems confronting them, adding that school for life will do its best to help address the problem.
The CBE program, he explained, is using two local languages; likpakpa and Dagbani as a medium of instruction in the Sang district.
The beneficiary children are between eight and fourteen years. The learners will spend nine months before they are integrated and enrolled into the formal school system. The M&E officer explained that instructional hours are three hours beginning from 2pm to 5 pm.
A five-member committee was also formed in all the program beneficiary communities comprising three women and two men.
The community development officer at the Mion district assembly, Sumani Adam, appealed to parents not to use school children during school days. He said the children can support their parents during holidays and after school hours.
He also appealed to the parents not to always give out their girls for marriage but rather invest in their education so that they can become responsible.
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