Over 17,000 children transitioned to mainstream school – Education Minister

One year into the operations of the Ghana Education Outcomes Project (GEOP) in the country, it has successfully transitioned 17,340 children into mainstream schools.

All the over 17,000 children who were out of school have been integrated into mainstream schools after being offered the opportunity to study with special assistants from a team of educationists in some selected districts across the country.

The GEOP project is one of the interventions by the government in its quest to make education equitable by bringing children back into the classroom to acquire critical skills.

The Deputy Minister for Education, Madam Gifty Twum Ampofo speaking on behalf of Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, the Education Minister explained that the transition follows successful teaching and learning for the OOSC for nine months before being enrolled into the mainstream school from primary grades 2 and 4 (P2 & P4).

She made the announcement at the annual GEOP service provider assignment (Lots 1-6) annual implementation review workshop and 4th quarter review meeting held in Accra on Tuesday.

The event attracted stakeholders in the education sector, and policymakers among others.

The Minister spoke about the various interventions put in place by the Ministry and other agencies to enhance effective teaching and learning in schools across the country.

She was upbeat that the outcome of the one year of the GEOP project gives hope of getting more of such students into the classroom.

The GEOP Coordinator, Nana Fatima High described the outcome of the project as very impressive and pledged to continue working hard towards getting the best outcomes for the nation’s education, emphasizing that, the second cohort commenced with over 20,000 children going through the accepting learning programme.

“We have done a lot and we are very grateful so far we have taken children who have never been to school and those who have been out of school for one year or more, we have taken them through the 9 months accelerating learning programme”.

“They learned numeracy and literacy and now the children are in school transition to mainstream school which is a great achievement. Now we have started the second cohort of children, over 20,000 are going through the accelerating learning programme for 9 months to learn numeracy and literacy, and then come the next academic year they will also be transitioning into mainstream school” Nana Fatima High.

She noted that her outfit is determined to see more children back to school, hence measures are been put in place to achieve that.

Nana Fatima High commended everyone, especially service providers for their efforts toward the success of the project which would go a long way to enhance educational development in the country.

Some service providers were honoured with motorbikes and an undisclosed sum of money for the tremendous work done in their various districts.

Background

Ghana Education Outcome Project (GEOP), is a sub-component of the Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP) which aims at supporting out-of-school children (OOSCs) in districts that have the highest number of OOSCs across the country.

The project is aimed at returning 70,000 out-of-school children to the classroom and improving learning outcomes in over 600 GALOP schools in 29districts in the country and was launched by President H. E Nana Akufo Addo in February 2023.

 The three-year project with funding from a Foreign Commonwealth Development Organization (FCDO) grant through the Global Partnership for Results-Based Approaches Trust Fund (GPRBA-TF) and a counterpart funding of millions by the government of Ghana.

Source: Ghana/otecfmghana.com/Felix Baidoo