By Issah Mohammed
Accra, Jan 30, GNA – The World Bank has approved an additional financing of $117.13 million for the implementation of the US$218.7 million Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcome Projects (GALOP) launched in June 2020.
The grant is intended to ensure that interventions to improve basic education in 10,000 targeted low performing schools were extended to all non-performing kindergarten (KG) and primary schools in the country.
Mr. Robert Taliercio O’Brien, the World Bank Country Director for Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, made this known during an inspection visit to the Saint Thomas Presby KG/Primary School which has 430 learners made up of 207 girls and 223 boys.
It is one of nine beneficiary schools of the project in the Korle Klottey Municipality in the Greater Accra Region.
The Country Director was also joined by the Minister of Education, Mr. Haruna Iddrisu, who led a delegation from the ministry and the Ghana Education Service.
Mr. O’Brien noted that the release of the grant was important for strengthening micro economic stability and the fiscal consolidation efforts of the country.
He said it was inspiring to know that Ghanaian children were dedicating their energy and time to learn for the future.
“You are the citizens and workers of the future. Education is critical for economic development. Skills of the future are being taught here and built every day,” he said.
Mr. Iddrisu expressed the government’s commitment to achieving the objectives of the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE).
He urged pupils to be discipline, stay focused and respect their teachers as they imparted knowledge.
He announced the scaling up of the National Standardize test (NST) intervention under GALOP to cover learners at various levels of basic education.
Since 2021, GALOP has funded the NST for all primary 4 learners, enabling school managers to monitor results and measure proficiency level of learners in English and Mathematics at the school, municipal, regional and national levels.
“I am happy to note that as part of the GALOP intervention, the government will roll out comprehensively the national standardised test in the 2025/2026 academic year. As teachers, you are assured that you will be given requisite training and capacity building for the initiative,” he said.
Other GALOP interventions include learning grants for schools and the differential learning approach where teachers group learners based on their abilities.
Mrs Hannah Danso Apaw, the Head teacher at the Presby Boys Primary School, also called for the training of all basic schoolteachers on differential learning approach to ensure that the reassigning or transfer of teachers from beneficiary schools did not hinder the learning progress of pupils.
GNA