By Patrick Ofoe Nudzi
Accra, Feb. 6, GNA – The Complementary Education Agency (CEA) has targeted to educate 30, 000 out-of-school children in four regions where the situation has been identified to be endemic.
The intervention, planned for the Bono, Upper East, Upper West and Northern Regions and eight districts, is under the Provision of Complementary Basic Education to out-of-school children between the ages of eight and 16.
This was said at the launch of Cycle 9 Complementary Basic Education (CBE) and Remedial Education Programmes for out-of-school children and dropouts.
Madam Catherine Appiah-Pinkrah, Acting Executive Director of the Agency, said the selection of the regions was based on the pervasive nature of several vulnerable children who had not received basic formal education.
“When these young children are developed, they can brighten the corner where they are. It is, therefore, incumbent upon the Agency to offer the out-of-school children the opportunity to acquire education outside the formal classroom,” she said.
Madam Appiah-Pinkrah said stakeholders, including the CEA, should not assume that the Complementary Basic Education was a favour done to the children but Ghana’s future is secured.
She said the most challenging aspect of educating the children had been their integration into the regular classrooms and called for strategic programmes not to “make these children hanging”.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, the Acting Executive Director said the CEA educated 5, 000 out-of-school children in six districts in Cycle 8 in 2023 and that the training hinged on TVET skills acquisition.
Madam Gifty Twum Ampofo, Deputy Minister for Education, who launched the Cycle 9 Complementary Basic Education and Remedial Education Programmes, said the country needed to give an all-inclusive education where citizens would not only read and write but know the effects of destroying the environment.
GNA