Over 1,700 out of school children have started a Complementary Basic Education (CBE) classes in Gushegu, Karaga and West Gonja districts in the Northern Region aimed at equipping them with the necessary tools to learn through the mother tongue.
Some 24 complementary basic education classes would be held in Gushegu, 24 in Karaga and 20 in the West Gonja districts, which would cover 68 communities in the three districts.
The complementary basic education is a nine-month literacy and numeracy learning in the mother tongues of the children enrolled into CBE classes.
Mr. Ernest Nniakyire, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer of the programme for GILLBT announced this during the opening of one of the CBE classes at Zamashegu near Gushegu in the Gushegu District of the Northern Region.
Mr. Nniakyire stated that the Ghana Institute of Linguistics, Literacy and Bible Translation (GILLBT), the School for Life, World Education, AFRIKIDs, and IBIS among others, were implementing partners of the CBE project in the country, which is targeting 20,000 children who are out of school to be enrolled into formal education next academic year.
He said UK aid is funding the CBE project through Crown Agent in Accra to 10 NGOs, which GILLBT has the overall responsibility for the implementation of the programme in all the districts.
Mr. Nniakyire urged the Ghana Education Service, the district assemblies and the NGOs to prepare for the programme, adding that, facilitators for the project were being trained.
He noted that the children will use a period of nine months to learn the skills of reading, writing and numeracy after which, most of them will be ready to enter the Primary School for formal education.
Mr. Samuel Aawaar, Gushegu District Director of Education said a visit to some communities in the area revealed that there were a lot of children out of school.
He stated that GES will see how it would assist the programme and appealed to GILLBT and its partners to enroll more of the girls who are willing to join the classes
The Gushegu District Coordinator of CBE Mr. Jawol Titus Bisunna indicated that out of 30 Konkomba communities in the Gushegu District, only seven of them have formal basic schools.
Mr. Bisunna announced that Tatale/Sangule District will also benefit from the Project in 2014 and that the GES has made available classrooms, furniture, chalk and the necessary learning tools for the project.
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