The World Bank Group Education report 2018, dubbed “Facing forward: Schooling with Learning in Africa” said 16 per cent of kids from the poorest quintile were out of school, and that there was gender distinction at primary level.

Mrs Eunice Ackwerh, the Senior Education Specialist, World Bank Country Office, who presented an overview of the report on Ghana, said access to education had increased, but challenges relating to age of entry and repetition remained.

[contextly_sidebar id=”kBglAzKyIzCMgxuGFu8KoXc6zAkOuYBO”]She said the age of entry was a persistent challenge to enrollment rate monitoring, which shows barriers to access for on-time enrollment, related to supply of easily accessible basic schools for example.

The report, which compared Ghana to Senegal, Burkina Faso and Malawi, indicated that in Ghana, there was relatively consistent attendance through basic education.

It said at the secondary level, there was a much bigger drop off, since there was an entrance examination and placement process limited to those “qualifying” based on the number of places available.

The report said Ghana conducts national education assessments every two years, but there was the need for more formative assessments to feedback into schools and to measure intermediate results of student competencies.

It said while the Basic Education Certificate Exam (BECE) was normative and used to place students into Senior high school, students were not tested again until end of Senior High School (West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination) for entrance to university.

It noted that, by participating in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) through 2011, Ghana saw increases in each year of testing (albeit from a low starting point).

It said Ghana had been participating in EGRA/EGMA since 2013 with support from USAID, however the results had been questioned by policy makers because of the low learning levels revealed across both some local languages and English.

Lack of basic services in schools

The report said in Ghana, schools lack basic services to provide quality education.

The report, which compares Ghana to the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) average of percentage of primary schools with access to basic services in 2013, indicated that for toilet, Ghana had 58 per cent, while that of SSA was 69 per cent.

For portable water, Ghana scores 45, whereas that of the SSA was 51 per cent; however for electricity, Ghana’s performance was 31 per cent, while that of the SSA was 25 per cent.

Childhood Education

On policy direction for Ghana, the report recommended early investment; adding that quality of pre-primary was critical especially in order to develop non-cognitive foundational skills.

It said Early Childhood Education could interrupt the low skills equilibrium improving schooling, jobs, and even earnings called for alignment of curricula, teacher training, materials and assessments around goal of foundational skills for all.

It said there was the need to recognize inequality in learning opportunities, noting that disadvantaged children attend schools that are also disadvantaged, adding“Our policies need to help level playing field and address particular challenges to learning for these children,” .

It advocated quality-enhancing, non-teacher-related inputs, and the need to define and implement standards for minimum school facilities.

It said “Education doesn’t currently build literacy effectively- students can go through school without learning basic foundational skills in reading, maths and science,” and called for improvement in teacher management and support.

It said additional time for learning, school feeding and more or better teachers demonstrated impact as well.

Dr. Beatrix Allah-Mensah, World Bank Senior Country Officer, said: “Schooling is not the same as learning, and here in Ghana, we are well aware of education failing some of our students, particularly children from low-income communities.”

She noted that, education should equip students with the skills they need to contribute to their societies.

“The recent expansion in education is impressive – and Ghana deserves significant praise for its achievements in almost universal access to basic education.”

“Ghana’s access indicators are the envy of many African countries, however, this contradicts the low learning levels, measured by several national and international assessments that indicate that even if students attend school, they may leave without the very basic skills for literacy and numeracy,” she added.

Dr. David Evans, a Lead Economist on the team for the 2018 World Development Report, who gave an overview of the report, said countries that provide better education had faster and sustainable economic growth.

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Source: GNA

The post Less than 10% of Ghanaian children out of school – Report appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Yaw Siki made a resolution to stop writing secular music after he was involved in a near fatal accident on April 15, 2013 on the Tema-Motorway road.

Sharing his life changing story on Citi FM’s Traffic Avenue, Yaw Siki said though he used to be addicted to bad habits such as pornography and wee smoking, he had been liberated from them after developing a personal relationship with Christ.

“There were some habits and sexual immoral stuff such as pornography that I was addicted to and because I was addicted to it I was writing songs like ‘wopedudu’”

“The more I watched pornography, the more I wrote songs like that and the more it made me practice stuff like that because I had to practice what I was preaching,” he stated.

Revealing other addictions he was prone to, the former hiplife artiste said“I use to smoke marijuana. I looked quite innocent back then but I will just go to a ghetto close to me and smoke marijuana. While I was smoking I knew I had to stop but I was still doing it because it was an addiction”

Asked what motivated him to write those secular songs, he stated that his insatiable desire to be known and appreciated compelled him to do so.

“At that time I was just a young guy who loved music, who knew how to write music and had been underground for so long, waiting for people to hear what was inside me. The experience was so nice when I knew people appreciated me for what I was doing.”

He revealed that though his former career as a hip life artiste gave him so much exposure and introduced him to great people it was not a “fulfilling experience.”

According to him, most of the bad habits he developed came from the hip pop songs that he listened to.

Recalling the near fatal accident he was involved in with another friend  on the Tema Motoway in 2013, Yaw Siki said he was ‘ totally off, blank and not in existence” when the incident suddenly happened.

“I was just lying in my friend’s car dozing off when I heard him complaining about the reckless driving of  another taxi driver. I suddenly went off, my mind was not working, my conscience was not working…,” he explained.

“The next time my eyes open slightly, I was in so much pain and my friend was beside me consoling me.The next time I woke up I was feeling a bit cool, but when I finally got my eyes opened and the pains started resurfacing I noticed I had been involved in an accident.

“The next thought that occurred to me was I could have died yesterday and if I died, was I ready to meet my maker, that was when I realized I need to change,” he added.

By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah

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