SfL Fights School Dropout Rate, Poor Performance With CBE/LDC Concept

An estimated one million children in Ghana are believed to be out-of-school, and the main reasons attributed to this negative phenomenon include poverty amongst families, lack of teachers and classroom infrastructure, cultural and religious beliefs that discriminate against female education and children’s disinterest in schooling due to lack of conducive environments for studies.

Despite several attempts by governments and other actors in the educational sector over the years to avert the trend, it appears the complexity surrounding the issue of school dropouts and poor educational quality would also need a rather more sophisticated approach to deal with the problem in a sustained manner. 

For instance, most of school dropouts are found in rural areas of the country where the lack of social amenities to a large extent, discouraged a lot of teachers [more competent ones] to accept postings there to teach. 

Besides, some tribes in the Northern part of the country believed that educating the girl child was unnecessary, because women unlike their male counterparts did not stay in the family when they grew up but got married. Thus, a greater percentage of women [over 65%] cannot read or write as against over 68% of men who can read and write, according to a Ghana Living Standards Survey report.

Against this backdrop, School for Life [SfL], Tamale based non-governmental organisation that works to strengthen civil society’s role in improving access to quality education and retention of pupils in school, had over the years proven that with sustained support from governments and other stakeholders, the number of school dropouts could drop drastically through its Complementary Basic Education [CBE] model.

By functioning as a lead organization in delivering, demonstrating and advocating for mother-tongue based CBE model of instruction in underserved areas of Ghana in particular, SfL taught school dropouts in their mother tongue as well as trained teachers and NGOs that wanted to replicate the model. 

Thus, at a recent workshop organized in Tamale for actors in the educational sector, a CBE Learning and Development Centre [LDC] developed by SfL was outdoored for participants to learn about its usefulness and also access it in order to replicate it so that there could be further positive impact on the quality of education in the country and also go a long way to reduce dropout rate.

According to SfL’s Deputy Manager in charge of Operations Alhaji Abdulai Ziblim, the LDC was targeted at public and private institutions seeking to replicate or learn from the SfL methodology, citing for instance the Ministry of Education and Ghana Education Service, NGOs, Community Based and Civil Society Organisations in education, Development Partners, Private Schools and Individuals, Public Schools and Institutions.  

He explained that since the launch of the LDC, SfL had offered technical support to CSOs to implement CBE; trained private school teachers in suitable methodologies in teaching children in lower primary; trained teachers in the preparation and use of appropriate teaching and learning materials and implemented quality education project in Saboba and Chereponi Districts. 

Mr. Karimu Mohammed, a facilitator of the workshop disclosed the content of the LDC that included the teaching of pedagogical skills; development and effective use of teaching and learning materials; determining learning outcomes; replication of SfL methodology; gender; writing; and the translation and transposition of scripts from English into the various Ghanaian languages.

 

According to him, to ensure the effectiveness and success of the LDC, SfL had adopted Gbulahagu Primary School as a demonstration school. The main purpose was to equip the school with training, teaching and learning materials that would enable the teachers put up their best and be able to share their knowledge and experiences with teachers from other schools.

SfL started in 1995, springing from cooperation between the Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA) and the Ghana Friendship Groups in Denmark. It was formed as an independent NGO in practice closely linked to other GDCA development interventions. 

The partners saw education as a pillar of development and at the same time realized serious challenges to educational performance in deprived parts of Ghana and the North in general. The intention was therefore to give out-of-school children beyond school starting age an opportunity to attain basic literacy and numeracy in their mother tongue.

The SfL education programme was therefore instituted and it took a period of nine months for a child to graduate after being taken through teaching of local languages, music and dance, as well as reading and writing. Children were also taught some basic skills and knowledge that would be found useful in their families and communities, thus promoting a positive perception of education in the hope that families would choose to let the children continue their education in formal schools after the nine months teaching offered by the NGO. 

Community involvement, use of the mother tongue, locally adapted curriculum as well as locally recruited community teachers [facilitators], were major features of the CBE model. This made SfL to be warmly welcomed in communities previously skeptical of education. 

Parents see the benefits of education and approximately 80% of SfL graduates transition into the formal school system to continue with their education, typically able to enter at primary 3 or above after the nine months tuition. SfL had helped to boost access to education since its establishment as a total of 150,000 children and still counting had benefitted from the CBE programme. 

An impact assessment conducted in 2007 to collect sufficient evidence to draw reliable conclusions on the effectiveness of the CBE model showed significant impact at individual, family and community levels. The convincing results achieved by SfL paved the way for expanding the scope through cooperation with major development partners in education including UNICEF and the UK’s Department for International Development. 

The NGO advocated for the government of Ghana to introduce a new policy known as the CBE Policy that was now part of the Education Strategic Plan (ESP). The policy which would be rolled out nationwide in June 2013 beginning with a pilot in four regions, would introduce teachers in public basic schools to the CBE teaching methods so that teachers could improve upon classroom instructions and also in the long term [2015] ensure that more children are in school.

Meanwhile, many districts are clamouring for the programme but inadequate funding makes it impossible to extend to many places. Also, difficulty of some key players in education to accept the model and get it mainstreamed and the lack of political will to fund CBE activities are some of the challenges confronting SfL.  

SMEs Urged To Bank For Security Reasons

Tamale Central Market

Ghanaian Small and Medium Enterprise [SME] operators particularly those in the country’s major markets, that still do not bank ought to act very fast otherwise, they could soon be on their way out of business and unable to recover again should any natural disaster strike, Sualisu Alidu Mahama Area Manager for UniBank Tamale has cautioned.  

Having an active bank account according to him, could serve as a basic security in the event of fires, flooding, rainstorm disasters and even burglary because financial institutions were most likely to support you to start once again because of the commitment shown in doing business with them over a period of time.

Speaking to journalists during a health walk organized as part of activities earmarked towards the official launch of the newly established branch of UniBank Tamale, Mr. Sualisu encouraged SMEs to start keeping their money in banks since they could never tell what the future held for them. 

The walk through the principal streets of Tamale brought together management, staff and potential customers of Unibank who also distributed fliers to the public as a way of encouraging them to do business with the bank.  

For a business to progress and thrive successfully in any environment Mr. Sualisu noted that, SME operators ought to consider banking as an essential part of running their business, adding that it was safe keeping money in the bank and it also guaranteed them a loan from the bank to restart their business in the event of any liquidation.

Since the beginning of the year, rampant fire outbreaks in markets and other commercial centres were believed to have cost the nation millions of cedis as most of the causes had been attributed to illegal wiring in stalls, the use of substandard cables in wiring, arson and among others.

Also, recent statistics indicated that an estimated 2 million Ghanaians out of the total population of 24 million had active bank accounts. This means that, majority of the populace perhaps still did not understand the relevance of saving money in the bank or saw it to be too burdensome for them to walk into a bank and transact business.

Staff, customers of UniBank Walk to Keep healthy

Mr. Sualisu said, in an attempt to boost the level of clientele of the bank in the bustling city,  management of UniBank had devised an innovative strategy of encouraging the people of Tamale particularly traders in the Tamale Central and Aboabo markets and other business operators to open accounts or save their hard earned money with the bank. 

He explained that management had engaged in what they called “Pitch The Tent” and with this innovative strategy, staff of the bank moved to the markets and other commercial centres to give counseling and advice to businessmen and women as well as try to let them understand why owning a bank account in this 21^st century was so important.

In its twelve year of operation as a wholly Ghanaian owned bank, the Tamale branch which is hosted in a new three storey complex is the 21^st branch to be established and according to the Area Manager, management hoped to expand very fast in the next few years considering the business potentials that existed in Tamale, the fastest growing city in West Africa.

UniBank understands business, he said, and we will treat our customers special because they are the reason why we exist and for that matter, there should be no excuse whatsoever in serving them on daily basis. “Our main focus is the individuals and SME… The SME is really the emerging market and we want to grow this sector”, Mr. Sualisu added.  

AU@50: Time For African Leaders To Think On Their Feet

Kwame Nkrumah

“…..Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds. Have no fear for atomic energy, 'Cause none of them can stop the time. How long shall they kill our prophets, while we stand aside and look. Some say it's just a part of it: We've got to fulfill de book. Won't you help to sing these songs of freedom?……..”  

The above lyrics of the song titled “Redemption” composed by the legendary reggae musician Bob Nesta Marley is loaded with lots of wisdom which the current generation of African leaders ought to use as reference point anytime they’re lost in their attempt to actualize the dream of Kwame Nkrumah and the others.  

Dear Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Mobuto Sese Sekou, Emperor Haile Selassie, Gamel Abdel Nasser and all those who helped nurtured the dream of African unity but did not live to see it grow, may your souls rest in perfect peace. A true pan-Africanist like me, remember you as heroes because; you fought very hard and conquered the battle. You tried very hard to make Africa a one state governed by one superior leader with a single military force, a common currency, and so on and so forth and you almost succeeded. 

But unfortunately, most of those who came after you and were supposed to actualize the dream of a United States of Africa were self-centered and so are those who are ruling now, because they either don’t think on their feet or outside the box. 

The current generation of African political leaderships have failed to realize that anytime a visionary leader like you Nkrumah, arises somewhere on the continent and those so-called western leaders begin to find unnecessary faults with his style of dressing, the way he talks and how he governs; he suddenly becomes a target of such western imperialists and they’ll do anything to overthrow him just like they did to you through the C.I.A Mr. President. 

These western nations particularly the Americans, British and France have so many ways of toppling a democratically elected president who refuses to dance to their tune or satisfy their whims and caprices. 

Mr. President, please inform Gamel Abdel Nasser and the rest that not too long ago, France and America attacked Libya and killed the President of that great nation Brother Muammar Gaddafi. I believe he’s currently with you and perhaps might have told you what happened to him. These western imperialists realized Brother Gaddafi had the wherewithal to unite Africa, create a single currency for us, establish a common bank for us and perhaps establish a single military force for the continent. 

But rather, they told Libyans that they were not properly treated by Brother Gaddafi and so, they should oust him. These two western imperialists armed opposition members [terrorists], joined forces with them through the corrupt NATO and they murdered Brother Gaddafi. Please inform Brother Gaddafi that Libya’s economy is in a worst state and perhaps would not recover for many years to come. It will cost the current political administration of Libya billions of dollars to reconstruct the country he built for them with their own natural resources. 

Mr. President, Africa’s myopic leaders [with the exception President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and others who think like true pan-Africanists], failed to realize that Brother Gaddafi was a threat to the west [capable of making Africa an economic super-power] and that was why they attacked him, killed him and destroyed his country. 

Mr. President, if it were left to Brother Mugabe and the few honest ones, the continent would have united and the people do things their own way as you wished many decades ago. It’s only Brother Mugabe who can tell any western multinational that “you either accept our terms or go away. If we’re not able to mine the gold, our grandchildren will come and mine it”. But surprisingly, in your own country Ghana, all those who came after you including those ones that connived with the C.I.A to overthrow you find it difficult to take such hard decisions when they’re shown briefcases filled with hundred dollar bills. 

Mr. President, it will interest you to know that Brother Mugabe and others are never consulted when it comes to taking decisions that would inure to the benefit of the west instead of Africa. They are often sidelined and even betrayed. The western puppets who call themselves presidents sit and watch the western imperialists impose sanctions on their own brother [Mugabe] and his children [Zimbabweans] just because of small grants they give to them. 

Mr. President, in fact it will also interest you to know that there are presidents in these western countries who behave the same way or are worst than your sons and daughters. For instance, George Walker Bush Jnr who ruled the USA before Barack Hussein Obama [a half African], has committed more crimes than Brothers Charles Taylor, Gaddafi, Laurent Gbagbo and all those former African heads of states who have been hauled before the ICC. But then again, you’ll ask why Bush who attacked Iraq, Afghanistan and sponsored attacks on other nations is not arrested and prosecuted at the International Criminal Court?  

Mr. President, there is no denying the fact that the western imperialists knew your worth. They knew you were a messiah sent to liberate Ghanaians and Africans from the shackles of colonialism and neo-colonialism. The British and particularly the Americans knew it was possible for you to succeed with your dream of African unity. And so, they masterminded your overthrow through the C.I.A which was ably supported by some of the myopic minds of the Ghanaian political elite class in 1966. 

In your absence, I continue to tell Africans that Africa has done it before under the leadership of great visionary and selfless leaders who came before you. As far back as 2000 to 3000 BC, Africa was leading in education and civilization with unusual feats accomplished in architecture and medicine [building of the pyramids and preservation of the dead -mummies]. Africa was the heavyweight of quality education globally then, but somehow we lost our place in education and began to lose our place in civilization as well. It is a fact that all Greek mathematicians, historians, archaeologist, sociologist, architects and among others came into Egypt to receive formal education. And so civilization moved to Europe and by virtue of enlightenment Europeans began to rule the world. 

So Mr. President, as the continent celebrates the 50^th birthday of your O.A.U which was recently renamed AU, we the citizens want to know from our presidents, that how long shall they [western imperialists] continue to kill our prophets [visionary leaders like Gaddafi] while our presidents stand aside and look. How long shall we [Africans] continue to wait for a United States of Africa to be realized or actualized by our presidents? 

Mr. President, you did indicated in one of your powerful speeches when you were alive that united we stand but divided we fall. Africa still has half of the world’s natural resources including gold, diamonds, manganese, bauxite, timber, agricultural land, cocoa and among others, but still remains the poorest since your death. Malaria, HIV, maternal and infant mortality and among others are taking a toll on the lives of fellow citizens and millions are dying every year. 

Mr. President, I have decided to suggest to all African heads of states to start uniting by opening up their borders to neighbouring countries so that they can be free movement of goods and human beings. I also want to suggest to them to start uniting through regional groupings such as ECOWAS, COMESA, etc. For instance, all 16 countries that make up ECOWAS should begin to come together by establishing a single military force, get a single currency, elect one President and gradually, we’ll be there.  Long Live Ghana, long live Africa.