The Minister for Education, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, together with the U.S. Ambassador to Ghana Stephanie S. Sullivan has launched the Ghana Learning Radio reading program.
The radio program, which was developed in response to the closure of basic schools across the country due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, aims to engage parents, guardians/ caregivers, and students through daily broadcasts to support and improve reading among Ghana’s primary school age students.
Meant to address the inability of school children to go to school, the Ministry of Education partnered with the U.S. government through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to design a national radio program in reading.
The program will provide distance learning instruction in English and the 11 official Ghanaian languages of instruction for Kindergarten Two through fourth grade students.
The Ghana Education Service (GES), in collaboration with the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), will start broadcasting interactive and easy-to-follow reading lessons on June 15, 2020. All GBC radio stations will broadcast one-hour reading instruction sessions from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, with repeat broadcasts of the lessons on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
The lessons are adapted from USAID-supported instructional materials, validated by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. Broadcasts will also include health and safety behaviour change messaging that focus on handwashing, social distancing, and child-protection as well as messages to parents and caregivers to encourage homework supervision, family health and hygiene, and the prevention of bullying, sexual assault, and early pregnancy. #END#