Ghana launches $75.5m education grant

The Ministry of Education (MoE) has launched the $75.5 million Ghana Partnership for Education Grant (GPEG) in Accra.

The grant which became effective February 15, 2013 is from the Global Partnership for Education Fund (GPEF) and is to help improve the planning, monitoring and delivery of basic education services in deprived districts in Ghana.

The Global Partnership for Education Fund (GPEF) is a platform for collaboration at the global and country level to provide much needed resources to leverage financing to help countries improve education for all citizens.

A statement issued by the Ministry of Education said through the GPEF, Ghana commits to design and implement a credible education sector plan while donor partners commit to align and harmonize their support around this plan.

The World Bank has been asked to serve as the GPE supervising entity.

The GPEG was approved by the GPE Board on July 31, 2012 and by the World Bank Africa Vice President on October 11, 2012.

The grant agreement was signed on November 22, 2012 and became effective on February 15, 2013.

The development objective is to improve the planning, monitoring and delivery of basic education services in deprived districts in Ghana.

The three year grant is to be implemented by the Ghana Education Service in 57 deprived districts in eight out  of ten regions.

The grant is expected to benefit approximately 6,600 schools and 1.7 million pupils and students (KG-JHS).

According to the Ministry, approximately  8,000  untrained teachers  are  to  participate  in  a distance  learning  course to  upgrade their  credentials and  an additional 40,000 teachers and  many education staff will benefit from the  project.

By Ekow Quandzie