By Nicholas Osei-Wusu
Multiple factors undermine the quality of education delivery. In the Amansie West and Amansie South districts in the Ashanti region, candidates presented by schools for the Basic Education Certificate Examination, BECE over the years could barely read or write, leading to a very high school drop out rate.
Amansie West and Amansie South districts are among the most deprived and hard to-reach rural districts in the Ashanti region. Many trained teachers refuse postings to the area. Official data from the Ghana Education Service indicate that, about 500 teachers are needed to fill existing teaching vacancies in the two districts.
Not only is there very low school attendance among pupils as a result, but the high truancy is said to have more to do with pupils preferring to indulge in unregulated gold mining activities, commonly known as ‘galamsey’, rather than focus on formal education.
As a consequence, the quality of education in the two districts is so low, BECE candidates are barely able to read and understand questions during examinations. To help change that narative, Asanko Gold Ghana launched a ‘Literacy Improvement Project’ at Manso Nkran in the Amansie South district for the two administrative districts in the Ashanti region.
The Asanko Gold Literacy Improvement Project involves the provision of GES-approved reading books, promotion of engaging literacy activities, the building of professional competences among teachers and organise activities which will help develop interest in reading and confidence in the value of literacy.
A key component of the programme is a partnership between Asanko Gold Ghana Limited and the Otumfuo Osei Tutu II Foundation, under which mobile and virtual libraries will be deployed to some of the schools to enable the pupils regularly access a wider collection of books and digital learning resources.
The General Manager of Asanko Gold Ghana Limited, Mr. Justice Fenteng, said the initiative is designed to create a sustained access to reading materials, which are essential for developing a lifelong culture of reading among children to build resilient communities that thrive beyond mining.
“One of the things we realized is that, education is a bit challenged and so, we looked at how we can intervene. In this day and age, everything is about being able to read and understand. So if we can inculcate the habit of reading in them, that’s going to help them get far. The success of this project is not going to be measured by the books that we’ve given out, but the curiosity it is going to instil in the kids. That’s how we’re going to measure success.” Mr. Fenteng noted.
The General Manager explained further that, the initiative forms part of the 5-year socio-economic development plan of Asanko Gold Ghana toward building the resilience of its catchment communities to be vibrant beyond mining.
The Amansie South District Director of the Ghana Education Service, Simon Ampomah Anrwi, described the Literacy Improvement Project as timely and appropriate, noting that, it would enhance teachers’ capacity to improve literacy outcomes among pupils.
“It’s worrying when children go to write BECE and they can’t read, and they cannot further their education. These children would become drop outs. It’s worrying because these children cannot compete with other children in urban centres. So it’s about time we took this project brought, to enhance reading outcomes in our district, Amansie South.”
The Regent of Kwabenaso, Nana Gyansah Tabi, pledged the traditional authority’s support for the the project to succeed.
“Our children don’t have interest in reading because they don’t have role models. Parents are also not guiding them at home. So they roam about when school closes. The community is also not helping matters. So we appreciate this project by Asanko Gold and we’ll support it to succeed.” Nana Tabi said.
The launch was marked by the presentation of GES-approved reading books, furniture and other teaching and learning materials to the beneficiary schools.
