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The Global Director for Education, World Bank, Dr Jaime Saavedra, has commended Ghana for the strides it is making in the education sector, especially regarding access and improvement in quality education.
He said the country had witnessed significant investment in education over the last few years and the bank was happy to partner the government towards improving the sector.
“I think there has been a lot of progress in terms of education, particularly the free Senior High School policy, which has given a lot of opportunities to all. The returns are good, but still I think there is more to be done. The progress is commendable,” Dr Saavedra said.
He said the bank supported the government policy of consolidating Junior High School, stressing the bank would promote efficiency in the utilisation of resources.
Dr Saavedra disclosed these at a media interaction with journalists in Accra on Friday, as part of his two-day official visit to the country.
It was to enable the Global Director have access at first hand to ongoing World Bank support projects in the country, including, the Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Projects (GALOP) and the Africa Center of Excellence (ACE).
Dr Saavedra said the bank would invest $ 150 million in GALOP and the funding was approved in October 29, 2019, and became effective on April 6, 2020.
He said the project included three trust funds, comprising $24.2milllion, from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), $30million from the Global Partnership for Results Based Approaches (GPRBA), to support the Ghana Education Outcomes Project (GEOP) and $14.8million from the recently closed GPE COVID-19 accelerated financing.
Dr Saavedra explained that the objective of the project was to improve the quantity of education in low performing basic education schools and strengthen education sector equity and accountability in Ghana.
Similarly, the ACE was to improve the quality and relevance of research at the high institutes of learning.
Dr Saavedra visited the Liberty Avenue Basic School at Adabraka, one of the GALOP schools, the Accra Senior High School, the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI), as well as the West African Centre for Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) of the University of Ghana.
