USAID, UNICEF to support Ghana ; Improve basic level education

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has signed an agreement with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service (GES) to improve education at the basic level.

Under the four-year agreement, USAID will provide $14.5 million to UNICEF’s Ghana Education Programme to expand its work in improving learning opportunities for children, especially those from poor backgrounds and children with disabilities or those with special needs.

The USAID Mission Director to Ghana, Mr James A. Bever, who signed on behalf of the United States (US) government, said the partnership would support the printing and distribution of teaching and learning materials for kindergarten pupils.

“This will give children greater opportunities to improve on their reading skills in the early stages of their lives,” he stated.

According to Mr Bever, UNICEF, with the support of USAID, would start a nationwide campaign to raise awareness among parents of the contributions of physically challenged children to society through the development and distribution of materials designed for educators and children with special needs.

The UNICEF Representative in Ghana, Mrs Susan Namondo Ngogi, who signed on behalf of the fund, said with the support from the American government through USAID, “UNICEF will support the GES as they begin to modernise the School Report Card System to collect data from schools.”

She said the Mobile School Report Card was a new innovative smartphone system developed locally to collect information such as teacher absenteeism from schools to help in better planning and decision-making.

Mrs Ngogi mentioned that over the next four years, she hoped the new exciting three-way partnership would help promote equal and quality education for all schoolchildren in Ghana.

The UNICEF Representative in Ghana also thanked USAID for its willingness to partner UNICEF to provide better teaching practices and higher achievements at the basic education level.

The Immediate-past acting Director-General of the GES, Mr Charles Aheto-Tsegah, said over the past few years, Ghana had made rapid progress in the education sector, stressing that “the country looks forward to the continued collective investments in the education sector for quality education for all Ghanaian children.”