By Nicholas Osei-Wusu
The Ministry of Education has appealed for the partnership of multinational firms, particularly mining and oil companies, to transform formal education within the operational communities of the organisations to ultimately turn around Ghana’s economy.
Such investment, according to the Education Ministry, will also transform the operational communities to catch up with socio-economic development in other parts of the country.
A Deputy Minister for Education, Reverend John Ntim Fordjour, who made the call, has therefore commended AngloGold Ashanti for leading the way with substantial investment in education that is already making a positive impact on learning outcomes within the Obuasi municipality.
The Deputy Minister for Education, commending AngloGold Ashanti for the leadership role it is playing in investment in education, urged multinational companies in particular to support the government’s investment in the sector to achieve greater results in quality human capital development.
He advised the pupils to take advantage of the improved environment to learn harder.
He was taking over an ultra-modern school project at Sanso in the Obuasi Municipality of the Ashanti region, which was built at a cost of nearly GHC 4.8 million by AngloGold Ashanti.
The project is a transformation of the dilapidated Methodist primary school at Sanso.
Today, the Sanso Methodist primary school has been transformed into an ultramodern social amenity well-furnished and stocked with information and Communication Technology (ICT) laboratory, classrooms, a Sick Bay, a Canteen, a Staff Common Room among other ancillary facilities meant to motivate school enrolment, attendance and retention of school-going-age children.
AngloGold Ashanti, Obuasi Mine, financed the project at four point-eight million Ghana cedis as part of the Mine’s 10-year Socio-Economic Development Programme to make the Obuasi enclave self-sustaining economically with or without the gold mine.
This adds up to AngloGold Ashanti’s substantial investment in formal education within the Adansi Traditional area, which constitutes the Obuasi mine’s catchment area.
Already, the Mine has equipped 500 basic school teachers within the Adansi traditional area with leadership skills for effective teaching and learning, supported the distribution of 140 thousand NaCCA-approved textbooks to all public basic schools in the area, and is now solely financing the construction of Ghana’s first ever Examination Questions Printing Centre outside of the West African Examinations Council, WAEC, at Obuasi.
At the handover ceremony of the school to the Ministry of Education at Sanso in the Ashanti region, the Senior Manager, Community Relations Africa of AngloGold Ashanti, Emmanuel Baidoo, explained also that the Mine’s investment in formal education seeks to provide the most conducive learning environment in the communities for pupils to reach their full potential through creativity to become employable and responsible adults in future.
The Senior manager emphasised that “education stands at the core of every thriving society. It empowers individuals to reach their full potential, ignites their creativity, and cultivates the leaders of tomorrow.”
Data from the Ghana Education Service indicates that the performance of Obuasi at the Basic Education Certificate Examination, BECE has improved from 84 percent to the current 93 point-four percent since 2020, attributable especially to the heavy investment in the sector during the period.
