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A $14.39 Million project aimed at improving student learning outcomes and financing options for Low-Cost Private Schools (LCPSs) in Northern Ghana has been launched in Tamale, the Northern Regional Capital.
Dubbed: “Advancing Partnerships for Improved Learning Activity”, the five-year intervention project seeks to increase teacher certification and retention, strengthen school leadership capacity and quality, and use a comprehensive investment strategy that will support school improvement.
It would also offer affordable financing options for selected low-cost private schools serving disadvantaged communities while strengthening the relationship and regulator capacity of the Ministry of Education in its oversight of private schools.
The project is being initiated by the Ministry of Education in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Opportunity International, a private and humanitarian bank as the lead implementer.
In all, it is expected to strengthen business skills for more than 200 school leaders, equip 400 teacher mentors with evidence-based classroom best practices to teach another 2,000 teachers and certify 1,200 untrained teachers.
The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, joined the USAID Deputy Mission Director, Grace Lang, to launch the project in Tamale last Friday.
Giving an overview of the project, the Chief of Party of the Advancing Partnerships for Improved Learning Activity, Salome Ong’ele, indicated that a total of 213 selected Low-Cost Schools within the northern part of the country were expected to benefit from the project.
She said the overall objective was to ensure that every child, regardless of their geographical location or school affiliation, had access to quality basic education.
Ong’ele added that Opportunity International, which was the lead implementation partner, would create a School Capacity Building Fund (SCBF) to empower schools with catalytic grants for operational enhancements and increased credit worthiness.
For her part, Madam Lang said the project aimed to attract increased private sector investments into northern Ghana's education landscape.
In his remarks, Dr Adutwum said the project was in line with the government’s commitment to improving quality education especially communities in rural areas.
While thanking the U.S government for committing the funds for the project, he reiterated his commitment to ensuring its successful implementation.
