About 13,250 out-of-school children to gain formal education

A total of 13, 250 out-of-school children from nine districts in the Northern and Upper West Regions could now enroll in the formal school system thanks to the Ghana Complementary Basic Education programme (CBE).

The CBE programme afforded these out-of-school children, who were beyond school starting age (14 years), the opportunity to acquire basic literacy and numeracy skills within a period of nine months (October to June) in their mother-tongues to facilitate their enrolment into the formal school system in the next academic year.

School for Life (SfL), a non-governmental organisation, implements the CBE programme with sponsorship from the United States Agency for International Development and the Department for International Development, and the beneficiary districts include Kumbungu, Saboba, Mion, Zabzugu, Sagnarigu, Karaga, Nanumba South, Wa West and Yendi Municipality.

Alhaji Hussein Abdulai Ziblim, Deputy Manager in-charge of Operations of SfL, who spoke at a ceremony to graduate the out-of-school children from the CBE at Kumbungu-Cheshegu in the Kumbungu District of the Northern Region, advised parents to ensure that the beneficiary children are sent to school.

The graduation ceremony was held simultaneously across all CBE learning centres in the nine districts.

Alhaji Abdulai Ziblim said the beneficiary children demonstrated the ability to learn and urged parents to support them to acquire formal education to enable them to realize their potential.

He said SfL would organise an orientation programme for teachers to understand the background of the children to know how to handle them in schools.

Mr Issahaku Alhassan, Basic School Coordinator of the Ghana Education Service in the Kumbungu District, who assessed the children during their graduation, said they demonstrated remarkable improvement in literacy and numeracy skills and must therefore, be enrolled in the formal school system.

Source: GNA