The official launch of the CBE programme in Binduri

CBE beneficiaries

David Pwalua, Programs Director Afrikids Ghana

Binduri DCE, Daniel Adoliba

According to the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, the country is said to be home to over a 120 thousand out of school children who are between the ages of 8-14. 

Interestingly, majority of these unfortunate children are from the Northern Savanna Zone with over 20,000 coming from Upper East Region.  

 It was against this backdrop that government developed the CBE programme, as a channel to get them into formal school after a period of complementary basic education. 

The Progranmme which is in its third phase was initiated by the Government of Ghana under the Ministry of Education with funding from the UK DFID and the USAID of the American people. 

The intervention is in line with governments effort to meet the MDG 2; which demand of countries to make it possible for all school going age to have universal access to primary education. 

The CBE project however works by forming community committees from which facilitators are trained to provide the transitional education. 

Beneficiaries are made to attend classes with support from local but trained voluntary facilitators who give them basic education using local languages such as Gurune, Kusaal and Dagbanli. 

These children are supported by the GES, to enroll in schools at their respective localities.

 In October last year, about 224 community volunteers drawn from six selected districts of the Northern and Upper East Regions were made to undergo a 20-day intensive residual training under the CBE, Programme, spearheaded by Afrikids Ghana, a benevolent child rights NGO. 

The volunteers are from Bongo, Talensi, Nabdam Bawku, and Pusiga, of the Upper East as well as the Karaga district of the Northern Region.

 Equipped with requisite skills in teaching, the volunteers are expected to reach out to 5, 600 out of school children in the project areas through a 9-month class in their mother tongue, after which they will be transitioned into formal schools in their various communities. 

The launch of the CBE programme in Binduri district and Bawku Municipal was to herald the second cycle which will run from 2016-2017.

 At a community durbar held at Atuba and attended by revered chiefs and other key stakeholders, the Binduri District Director of Education, Madam Felicia Asuyonka Akaaba said education of children should be of paramount concern to all and sundry because if conscious effort is not made to school drop outs, the future of the country will be blur and desolate.

 She outlined measures put in place by the GES to improve on education in the two selected districts and further appealed to parents to support the project by offering their wards the best of education they desire since it was the right investment they can make to better their lot.  

 The launching of the CBE project in the Bawku and Binduri districts form part of all the regional launch of the project across the six operational districts and are the last to benefit from the CBE intervention for the year 2015.

 It was therefore a welcoming news for the beneficiary districts particularly the GES. Mr David Pwalua is the Director of Programs at Afrikids Ghana. 

He explains the late start of the project in the said districts and challenged parents and the trainers to take ownership of the project and give it the necessary support to achieve its intended purpose. 

 Mr Pwalua also acknowledged the continuous partnership of the ten CBE implementing partners, particularly GES, emphasizing that their level of commitment was an indication of an effective outcome of the project. 

He was of the strong conviction that even with the non-involvement of Afrikids and its implementing partners in 2017, GES was poised to sustain the project in the districts based on their level of commitment. 

 It will interest listeners to know that after the animation and recruitment exercise 72 classes have been cited within 53 communities across the two administrative boundaries and the expected outcome of the project is that a little over 5,000 representing 90 percent of the children should be transitioned into formal school at the end of the 9-month cycle. 

Meanwhile a total of 72 facilitators have been trained to teach the 1,800 pupils who are out of school or have not been to school. 

Out of the number, the Binduri district will have 1,200 and the Bawku Municipal 600. Launching the project, the Binduri DCE, Daniel Adoliba, lauded the effort of Afrikids in the implementation of the CBE project in the district, stressing that its existence will go a long way to create the needed opportunities for school dropouts. 

He encouraged stakeholders to collaborate with project implementers and be part of the success story.  

 A CBE facilitator, Salifu Yakubu, thanked Afrikids for extending the project to benefit more deprived districts in the region. 

He observed that the training has been beneficial considering the impact it will have on children, who through no fault of theirs have been out of school due to poverty. 

Mr Yakubu urged Afrikids and its implementing partners to support the facilitators in addressing the issue of learning materials and transportation to ensure effective teaching and learning. 

GBC expects that in the coming years, more children will benefit from the CBE project through the intervention of Afrikids and its implementing agencies. 

Compiled by Isaac Asare