President Akufo Addo launches GEOP to bring over 70,000 children back to school
The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has launched the Ghana Education Outcome Project (GEOP) at a special ceremony in Accra.
The project is aimed at returning 70,000 out-of-school children back into the classroom as well as improving learning outcomes in over 600 GALOP schools in 29 districts in the country.
On the theme ”Getting all children educated through support to schools and communities” launch attracted hundreds of education-related stakeholders like the Word Bank, British High Commissioner, Non-Governmental Agencies, Agencies under the Education Ministry Metropolitan/Municipal and District Chief Executives among other dignitaries.
In an address read for the President, Mr Yaw Osafo Marfo, A Senior Presidential Advisor, lauded the World Bank and the United Kingdom for their support towards the development of the country in various facets.
He explained that the Finance Ministry signed the financing agreement with the World Bank on 21st June 2020 attesting to the government’s commitment towards getting the best education for the country.
The President said, “These 70,000, children will be taken through a robust accelerated learning programme (ALP) known as the Complementary Basic Education (CBE), a nine-month programme where children would be trained to acquire basic literacy and numeracy skills through this period”
He explained that the country has in the past years made significant gains in the education sector and was hopeful this GEOP would go a long way to boost education development in the country.
The Education Practice Manager of the World Bank in charge of West and Central Africa, Dr Scherezad Latif, praised the government and the Education Ministry as well as its Agencies for the demonstration of ownership of GEOP.
She pledged to continue working hard to ensure that the project would meet its target goals for the development of the nation’s education.
The British High Commissioner to Ghana, Harriet Thompson, was very happy to be part of the project which would go a long way to transform the lives of many Ghanaians.
She urged all stakeholders in the project to work very hard to ensure that the desired outcomes was attained at the end of the project.
The Education Minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, in his welcome address was upbeat about the project would be executed by all stakeholders to ensure that all Ghanaian children would be able to receive education for the good of the country and the rest of the world.
He praised the GEOP Coordinator, Nana Fatima High for her effort towards the commencement of the project which would go a long way to enhance educational development in the country.
Dr Adutwum who is the Member of Parliament for Bosomtwe assured the nation that everything possible to ensure the success of the project
Background
The government in its quest to make education equitable by bringing children back into the classroom has partnered with the Foreign Commonwealth Development Organization (FCDO).
This partnership seeks to improve the quality of education in Ghana in low-performing basic schools and strengthen education sector equity and accountability through Ghana Education Outcomes Project.
Funding of the project is an amount of US$ 25.5 million by the Foreign Commonwealth Development Organization (FCDO) grant through the Global Partnership for Results-Based Approaches Trust Fund (GPRBA-TF) and a counterpart funding of US$ 4.5 million by the government of Ghana.
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Feb 23