MiDA Rehabilitates 4 Schools
FOUR SCHOOLS in the Effutu Municipality and the Awutu-Senya District will receive facelift with support from Ghana Millennium Challenge Account (MiDA), which is powered by the Millennium Development Authority (MDA).
The schools include Senya-Breku Anglican Primary and Junior High Schools, Bawjiase A and B, Chochoe Junior High School and the Awutu Primary School.
In all, they would each benefit from between a four and six-unit classroom block valued at about $30,000.
To commence the project, a sod-cutting ceremony was held at the Senya-Bereku Anglican Primary and Junior High Schools which attracted school children from the beneficiary schools, teachers, representatives of the Ghana Education Service and some traditional leaders in the area.
The project forms part of the rural development activities under Ghana's Millennium Account programme which, as part of its objective of transforming the agricultural sector, seeks also to offer community services.
The Chief Executive Officer of MiDA, Martin Eson-Benjamin, said one of the key activities of the rural development programme under the MCA include the rehabilitation and construction of educational infrastructure, provision of potable water, sanitary facilities and the provision of rural electrification to power rural infrastructure and cottage industries in selected farming communities within 31 beneficiary districts. In all, 65 schools will be rehabilitated.
In addition to this, the rehabilitated schools also stand to benefit from furniture under the programme, Mr Eson-Benjamin said.
“The MCA programme aims to uplift these schools to enable the children in these areas to participate meaningfully in the educational reform programme,” he said.
Sue Brown, acting US Ambassador, who was a special guest at the ceremony, explained that specific demand for investments in the beneficiary communities would depend on the needs of the people as vetted by the relevant district offices.
These investments would be identified and patronized through the semi-annual development plan.
In all, she said MiDA will invest $75 million in education, water and sanitation and electrification.
To ensure that the programme was sustained and the intended objectives achieved, the USAID through its community teacher programme, will recruit, train and support uncertified teachers, usually senior high school graduates, to work in the schools.
The second phase of the project, she mentioned, will comprise the construction and furnishing of new schools according to the specification of the Ministry of Education.
“This would include teachers' quarters and ancillary facilities.
These new facilities require a longer planning and design period to ensure that they meet community needs and are constructed in an environmentally responsible manner.
It is easy to become impatient with the process,” she told the clapping gathering with the teachers clapping the loudest.
The District Chief Executive, Solomon Abam Quaye, said since the inception of the Capitation Grant and the School Feeding Programme, schools in the area had been experiencing overspill with enrolment increasing by the day; he was optimistic that the rehabilitation will save the situation.
He however appealed to members of the communities to ensure that the schools were maintained for use by future generations.
The Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), established by US President George Bush, is an innovative foreign assistance programme designed to reduce poverty through sustainable economic growth.
According to an agreement signed between Ghana and the Millennium Challenge Corporation, Ghana stands to gain $547 million.