Stakeholders asked to support CBE

Mr Stephen Adu, acting Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES) has called on stakeholders to support the Complementary Basic Education (CBE) programme to ensure that all children of school-going age were in school.

He said government acknowledged the need for such collaboration amongst stakeholders including parents, communities and district assemblies to ensure that no child was denied access to education.

He made the call at a ceremony in Tamale on Wednesday to mark the 20th Anniversary of School of Life (SfL), an organization under the Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA), based in Tamale.

The event was on the theme: “School for Life at 20: The Star in Complementary Basic Education in Ghana”.

SfL, which started operations formally in March 1995 in the Northern Region, is recognized for its efforts leading to the introduction of the CBE concept in the country, which government has adopted into the country’s school system.

CBE involves giving out-of-school children beyond school starting age an opportunity to attain basic literacy and numeracy in their mother tongue with the ultimate aim of getting them into formal school system.

Mr Adu said “Let us all therefore, play our complementary role to ensure that these unfortunate children are provided the education they need to survive and also participate in the nation’s development.”

He added that “As we work towards bringing all out-of-school children back to school, I wish to employ all schools to also embrace all those that would be mainstreamed from the CBE programme and also to ensure that they remain and complete their basic education and also to avoid further drop out.”

He commended SfL and its development partners for setting the pace and called on all to rally solidly behind the CBE to reach all out-of-school children.

Alhaji Mohammed-Muniru Limuna, Northern Regional Minister, whose speech was read on his behalf, said he had constituted an education sector working group “To engage stakeholders in education in the districts to see how we can collectively improve upon performance in the region.”

Naa Professor Abubakari Alhassan, Chairman of GDCA said over 200,000 children had benefited from the CBE programme being implemented by SfL.

He thanked partners including the United Nations Children Fund, Danish International Development Agency, United States Agency for International Development, Department for International Development, GES, district assemblies amongst others for their support, which ensured the success of CBE.

Alhaji Sulemana Saaka, Programme Manager of SfL urged all to take interest in the CBE programme and support enrollment of out-of-school children to ensure universal education for all.

Alhaji Saaka assured that SfL “remains committed to working to strengthen civil society’s role in improving access to relevant quality education.”