PROMOTE FUNCTIONAL ADULT LITERACY-GNECC
THE Chairman of the Ghana Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC), Mr Bright Appiah, has demanded of government to demonstrate its commitment to promote functional adult literacy in the country.
He said this could be done by increasing the budgetary allocation for functional adult literacy to the international accepted benchmark of three per cent of the education sector budget.
Currently, he noted that, about one percent of the education sector budget allocated to functional adult literacy was not acceptable.
Mr Appiah was speaking at a durbar organised by GNECC to climax activities marking this year’s Global Action Week, an initiative of the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) to network with other organisations world-wide and advocate for quality education.
Present at the durbar were students from O’Reilley Senior High School, Garrison Basic School, Madina 2 Junior High School, members from the Kpobiman Women's Association and other Civil Society Organisations.
The theme for this year's Global Action Week was “Women and Girls Education”, while The theme for the celebration in Ghana is “Women and Girls Education: It’s a Right, Make it work”. The theme is to emphasise the rights of women and girls to education, which is also key to national development.
The GCE has therefore set aside the first week of the month of May annually to highlight pertinent issues in the education sector for public knowledge and engage governments on measures to address these issues.
The GNECC is the lead agency that organises the Global Action Week 2011 in Ghana in partnership with other Civil Society Organisations interested in promoting access to quality basic education in Ghana.
Mr Appiah noted that, promoting functional adult literacy, and particularly the literacy of women was key to realising national economic and democratic ideals.
With females constituting 51 per cent of the country's population, he said educating girls and women in particular would foster their participation in the “country’s democratic life, increasing their participation in decision making arenas and in formal power structures”.
He said although a recent report on education in Ghana by the World Bank indicated that gender parity at the basic level was almost at the maximum, more girls dropped out of school before completing basic education.
He said several factors including gender based violence in school, absence of girl friendly facilities, teenage pregnancy among others accounted for poor retention and transition rates of girls, especially at the basic level.
Mr Appiah also noted that, the education set up in the country provided limited opportunities and no systemic remedial measures to ensure that girls who dropped out of school for various reasons returned to school.
He said GNECC was of the believe that as a country, "we are at a point where critical steps should be taken to improve the quality of girls and women's education, making it accessible to all girls, enjoyable and in a safe and girl friendly environment.
He, therefore, called for a comprehensive gender education policy with well thought out specific provisions on all the critical issues concerning women and girls education.
"Such policy provisions should cover the entire spectrum of the education sector and must specifically address thorny issues such as the re-entry of girls who drop out of school for various reasons, if we are to remedy the current situation of poor retention of girls at the basic level and improve on their transition to secondary level", he noted.
In a speech read on her behalf, the Minister of Education, Mrs Betty-Mould Iddrisu reiterated government's commitment to invest in girl child and women education.
She said "the government is investing so much in education to the tune of 30 per cent of our national budget".
Mrs Iddrisu, also mentioned the fact that successive governments had put in measures such as the introduction of the science technology and mathematics clinics for girls in 1987 aimed at ensuring that the girl child benefited from quality education at all levels of the education ladder.
She also mentioned that the Ministry was putting in measures to address inadequate teaching and learning materials at the basic level, noting that, "we will continue to support our female students with scholarships and other incentives to enable them acquire quality education".
She, therefore, appealed to all stakeholders in the educational sector to co-operate with them in their quest to provide children with quality education
In a solidarity message read on behalf of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the association called on government to establish gender friendly schools which would motivate children especially girls to remain in school.
According to the Personal Assistant to the General Secretary of GNAT, Ms Lily Adams, “What we see in Ghana is that the child’s home is better than the school so the child prefers to stay at home”.
She said dilapidated buildings, lack of toilets and urinals, garbage heaps in schools, schools turned into “wee” smoking grounds by criminals, defecating in classrooms where in most cases girls’ were called to clean such places pushed the children out of school.
She said many factors such as the lack of a healthy and safe environment, lack of psychological support, inaccessible learning institutions among others hindered the
of girls in schools.
Ms Adams, therefore, noted that, “Ghana still has quite a distance if we can achieve the millennium and Education for All Goals in 2015”.
He said this could be done by increasing the budgetary allocation for functional adult literacy to the international accepted benchmark of three per cent of the education sector budget.
Currently, he noted that, about one percent of the education sector budget allocated to functional adult literacy was not acceptable.
Mr Appiah was speaking at a durbar organised by GNECC to climax activities marking this year’s Global Action Week, an initiative of the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) to network with other organisations world-wide and advocate for quality education.
Present at the durbar were students from O’Reilley Senior High School, Garrison Basic School, Madina 2 Junior High School, members from the Kpobiman Women's Association and other Civil Society Organisations.
The theme for this year's Global Action Week was “Women and Girls Education”, while The theme for the celebration in Ghana is “Women and Girls Education: It’s a Right, Make it work”. The theme is to emphasise the rights of women and girls to education, which is also key to national development.
The GCE has therefore set aside the first week of the month of May annually to highlight pertinent issues in the education sector for public knowledge and engage governments on measures to address these issues.
The GNECC is the lead agency that organises the Global Action Week 2011 in Ghana in partnership with other Civil Society Organisations interested in promoting access to quality basic education in Ghana.
Mr Appiah noted that, promoting functional adult literacy, and particularly the literacy of women was key to realising national economic and democratic ideals.
With females constituting 51 per cent of the country's population, he said educating girls and women in particular would foster their participation in the “country’s democratic life, increasing their participation in decision making arenas and in formal power structures”.
He said although a recent report on education in Ghana by the World Bank indicated that gender parity at the basic level was almost at the maximum, more girls dropped out of school before completing basic education.
He said several factors including gender based violence in school, absence of girl friendly facilities, teenage pregnancy among others accounted for poor retention and transition rates of girls, especially at the basic level.
Mr Appiah also noted that, the education set up in the country provided limited opportunities and no systemic remedial measures to ensure that girls who dropped out of school for various reasons returned to school.
He said GNECC was of the believe that as a country, "we are at a point where critical steps should be taken to improve the quality of girls and women's education, making it accessible to all girls, enjoyable and in a safe and girl friendly environment.
He, therefore, called for a comprehensive gender education policy with well thought out specific provisions on all the critical issues concerning women and girls education.
"Such policy provisions should cover the entire spectrum of the education sector and must specifically address thorny issues such as the re-entry of girls who drop out of school for various reasons, if we are to remedy the current situation of poor retention of girls at the basic level and improve on their transition to secondary level", he noted.
In a speech read on her behalf, the Minister of Education, Mrs Betty-Mould Iddrisu reiterated government's commitment to invest in girl child and women education.
She said "the government is investing so much in education to the tune of 30 per cent of our national budget".
Mrs Iddrisu, also mentioned the fact that successive governments had put in measures such as the introduction of the science technology and mathematics clinics for girls in 1987 aimed at ensuring that the girl child benefited from quality education at all levels of the education ladder.
She also mentioned that the Ministry was putting in measures to address inadequate teaching and learning materials at the basic level, noting that, "we will continue to support our female students with scholarships and other incentives to enable them acquire quality education".
She, therefore, appealed to all stakeholders in the educational sector to co-operate with them in their quest to provide children with quality education
In a solidarity message read on behalf of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the association called on government to establish gender friendly schools which would motivate children especially girls to remain in school.
According to the Personal Assistant to the General Secretary of GNAT, Ms Lily Adams, “What we see in Ghana is that the child’s home is better than the school so the child prefers to stay at home”.
She said dilapidated buildings, lack of toilets and urinals, garbage heaps in schools, schools turned into “wee” smoking grounds by criminals, defecating in classrooms where in most cases girls’ were called to clean such places pushed the children out of school.
She said many factors such as the lack of a healthy and safe environment, lack of psychological support, inaccessible learning institutions among others hindered the
of girls in schools.
Ms Adams, therefore, noted that, “Ghana still has quite a distance if we can achieve the millennium and Education for All Goals in 2015”.
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