Britain gives Ghana £65 million

  From Cyrus S. deGraft-Johnson, Tema

  THE British Government has provided £65 million to Ghana to support her development activities.

The British High Commissioner to Ghana, Dr Roderick Pullen, who announced this, said the amount forms part of £2.8 billion total development assistance to the Third World Countries, making Ghana, UK’s largest bilateral development partner in Africa and the sixth biggest recipient of development assistance worldwide.

He said in the field of education, the British Government has made a commitment to provide a grant of £50 million (around ¢500 billion), out of which £21 million (¢210 million) has been spent so far under the basic education component of the Government of Ghana Education Sector Strategic Plan.

Dr Pullen was addressing the 40th anniversary durbar of the Tema Secondary School (TEMASCO)   at Tema, last Saturday.

He said so far, reading books worth £7 million have been distributed nationwide, while some deprived schools in 85 districts have been provided with furniture.

He said the British approach is to provide such assistance directly to the budget of the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service for the Education Sector Support Programme (ESSP).

The British High Commissioner noted that 113 million children of school-going age worldwide are out of school because of poverty and lack of adequate infrastructure and added that the British government is committed to drawing up programmes to reduce the rate.

The Deputy Minister of Education, Mr Rashid Bawa, said though the principal objective of the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) is to equip the individual with skill and capacity to enable him or her to find solutions to his or her problems and challenges, there are inherent defects that need to be addressed.

He said the government intends to undertake a dispassionate review of the programme with the active collaboration of all stakeholders.

Mr Bawa underscored the importance of effective contact hours, adding that regular school attendance by both teachers and students should be the hallmark of any successful educational institution.

He expressed concern about the rising trend of student indiscipline and commended authorities of the school for maintaining a positive moral and  academic attitude over the years.

The founder and the first headmaster of the school, Dr Francis K. Buah, said efforts must be made to bridge the gap between the minority well-endowed and privileged schools in the urban centres and the newly established SSS institutions mostly located in the deprived rural areas.

He said this is necessary to  correct the situation where students from the rural areas perform badly at external examinations, while their urban counterparts do better.