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27.02.2015 Social News

Government to distribute10,000 locally sandals to pupils

27.02.2015 LISTEN
By GNA

Accra, Feb 27, GNA - President John Dramani Mahama has said government will from this year start with the distribution of ten thousand (10,000) locally produced made-in-Ghana school sandals to pupils in selected deprived districts.

He added that Six million (6,000,000) textbooks, Five hundred thousand (500,000) pieces of school uniforms, Fifteen million (15,000,000) exercise books, and Thirty thousand (30,000) computers will also be distributed to schools across the country for the enhancement of basic education.

He stressed that to consolidate the country's attainment of Universal Basic Education, twenty-four thousand, one hundred and seventeen (24,117) out-of-school children were enrolled into school under the Complementary Basic Education (CBE) programme, which began in 2014.

'Through this, more of our rural poor were offered opportunities to be educated in 4 regions- Northern, Upper East, Upper West and Brong Ahafo. One hundred thousand (100,000) out-of-school children are being recruited this year to expand the programme to cover the remaining six regions,' he said.

President Mahama stated this in Accra when he delivered the 2015 state of the Nation's Address to Parliament on Thursday.

He noted that for government to continue to provide opportunities for those who are unsuccessful in their Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), the country has for the first time, introduced a re-sit policy at the basic education level.

'The policy was given true meaning when one thousand one hundred and eighty-one (1,181) candidates last week had the chance to re-sit their BECE as private candidates. These are persons who, but for this golden opportunity, would have otherwise had their education terminated at the JHS level,'

'Our focus on quality education requires the enhancement of teaching skills. To that end, about one hundred and sixty thousand (160,000) teachers, representing 56% of teachers at the basic education level received career development training,' he said.

President Mahama stressed that through the Basic Education Programme, equitable access to good quality, child-friendly Universal Basic Education, improvements in infrastructure and quality of teaching, provision of teaching and learning materials as well as management and supervision of schools, quality and access to basic education was being enhanced.

'As a nation, we must and we will continue to deliver social intervention programmes that will sustain access and reduce the cost of education to parents,' he said.

He stated that one thousand (1,000) teachers had also undergone In-Service Training in line with the objective of improving the teaching of mathematics and science.

'We envisage that this will help us meet the target of 60:40 in favour of the sciences as against humanities at the tertiary level. This is in line with our national development objectives, we shall continue with our interventions to improve the teaching and learning of Mathematics and Science across the country,' he said.

On gender parity President Mahama noted that gender parity at the basic level remains a major priority in the country's education policy and that government had attained a 1:1 Gender parity ratio adding that 'Over ninety-two thousand (92,000) girls have benefitted from the take-home ration programme in the Upper East, Upper West and Northern Regions,'.

'Under the Global Partnership for Education Programme, fifty-five thousand (55,000) girls in Junior High School will also receive scholarships, school uniforms, sandals, bags and stationery,' President Mahama noted.

He observed that there were more children in school now than ever before.

'At the close of the 2013/14 academic year, over 5.4 million children were enrolled at the basic education level. This compares to a total enrolment figure of 4.6 million in the 2008/2009 academic year,' he said.

He expressed happiness about children no longer skipping school to play truant hiding behind the excuse of the shift system as the school shift system, through which pupils run shifts due to lack of adequate classrooms, had now been eliminated in many districts with Wa, Sunyani Municipal, Tarkwa, Dansoman, Krachi Ntsumuru in the Volta Region and many other areas not being an exception.

GNA

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