Children are still outside school

Accra, Oct 27, GNA - A Director of Education on Thursday observed that despite improvement in school enrolment there were still children of school going age who were outside the classrooms and needed to be enrolled.

Mrs Edna Yaa Adjepong-Takpuie, Director at the Basic Education Division of the Ghana Education Service, said: "I am reliably informed that the three regions in the Northern sector had engaged themselves in enrolment drive with material and financial support from the UNICEF."

She said this at the launch of communication materials to accelerate the promotion of girls' education in the Greater Accra Region. She said the children also enjoyed United Nations Food Programme, Catholic Relief Feeding Programme and other forms of interventions, which encouraged girls to be retained in school.

Mrs Adjepong-Takpuie said the Girls' Education Unit was created to champion the cause of enrolling more girls in schools, adding the unit with the support of UNICEF, World Vision, Plan International, Catholic Relief Services and some non-governmental organisations {NGOs} had been working assiduously to raise the level of girls' education. Mrs Adjepong-Takpuie said with the advent of the capitation grant, parents were relieved of school fees in accordance with the objectives of the UN Millennium Development Goals.

She noted that the grant had been designed to empower schools to effectively use financial resources to plan and carry out school improvement activities, minor repairs and school improvement programmes. She, therefore, urged parents to take advantage of the opportunity to send their children to school.

She said UNICEF donated the communication materials, which included books and posters and appealed to the beneficiaries to take good care of them so that they would achieve the desired impact.