MTN-GHANA STEP UP EFFORTS TO IMPROVE QUALITY OF EDUCATION IN NORTHERN REGION

As part of its corporate social responsibility program (CSR), mobile telecommunication giant MTN, has commissioned a newly constructed six-unit classroom block with office and store at Zujung, a peri-urban community in the Tamale Metropolis.

The project, that was executed by Haminsco Construction Company at a total cost of GH¢155,000.00, was intended to create a conducive environment for effective teaching and learning, and also encourage enrolment of children from the Zujung community into the school.

According to Ms. Cynthia Lumor, Executive Director of MTN Ghana Foundation (an agency established to handle CSR activities of the telecom company), MTN was proud to partner with the Ghana Education Service to achieve two of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

She explained that, MDGs two (2) and eight (8) sought to “Achieve universal primary education” and “Developing a global partnership for development,” respectively by the year 2015.

Thus, Ms. Young disclosed that, the Foundation since 2009 till date, rolled out 49 education projects totaling GH¢7,898,513.41 as well as other health and water projects across the country worth several millions of Ghana cedis.

Projects which include improving literacy and numeracy in five (5) basic schools in Tamale, construction of KVIP, streetlights, and presentation of sporting equipment to Tamale Senior High School, 20 sitter ICT centre with a full office set-up for the Tolon community and the construction of a six-unit classroom with office and store, all in the Northern Region have also been constructed by the Foundation.

In a related development, the MTN-Ghana Foundation also performed a ground-breaking ceremony at Kanvilli Presbyterian Basic School where it would construct a three unit classroom block and an ICT centre for the school.

According to officials of the school, the construction of the three unit classroom block comes at a time each class has as much as 110 students per teacher and the situation posed serious health hazards to the children and also affects quality of tuition and learning.

Meanwhile, statistics from the Ghana Education Service showed that, in the 2009 and 2010 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), the Tamale Metropolis obtained the 89^th and 103^rd positions in terms of rankings among all 170 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) nationwide.

Thus, the Coordinating Director of the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly Mr. John B. Atogiba commended MTN-Ghana Foundation for their efforts to bridge the poverty gap between the North and South of the country through formal education.