The people of Saboro, a community at Chiana in the Kassena-Nankana West District, of the Upper East Region, now has a newly constructed Early Childhood Development centre.
The facility which has two classrooms and offices was funded by Children Believe (CB), a child-focused non-profit Organisation based in Tamale in the Northern Region.
The Director of the Participatory Action for Rural Development Alternatives (PARDA), a non-profit organization, Dr. Michael Wombeogo, says the inability of teachers to share and discuss challenges in schools for solutions affects academic activities.
He said measures instituted by the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to gag teachers from sharing challenges in their schools, greatly affects the quality of education, especially in rural communities.
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He was concerned about the lack of furniture in some basic schools in the Kassena-Nankana West District and in some schools in the country.
His worry was that school authorities who know the negative effects of the situation on academic activities are unable to speak about it for the needed attention.
The Early Childhood Development Centre also has auxiliary facilities such as lavatories and a spacious playground with recreational facilities for the Kindergarten pupils, who were hitherto housed in a dilapidated structure, while others sat under trees for lessons.
Dr. Michael Wombeogo said the initiative was one of PARDA’s child development programmes implemented within the Builsa and Kassena-Nankana areas to ensure children in those areas had access to basic education.
The Country Manager of Children Believe, Mrs. Esenam Kavi De Souza, said the new school was one of the six infrastructure projects in the Northern and Upper East Regions that her organization funded within their current fiscal year.
She said for the past three years, CB had focused on improving Early Childhood Development by promoting good health and nutrition with a focus on the first 1000 days of life, positive and responsible care, security and safety of children, and providing education for early learning.
The Upper East Regional Director of Education, Mr. Edward Azure, who received the keys to the centre, said most ECD centres in the Region had inadequate structures and facilities to serve their purpose and expressed gratitude to PARDA and CB for the initiative.
PARDA also equipped the centre with teaching and learning materials and presented 65 handwashing facilities to schools across the Builsa and Kassena-Nankana areas to help them fight the coronavirus.
Apart from the facility, PARDA has trained about 200 adolescents on personal hygiene to take care of themselves, and 200 pupils on child protection with a focus on sexual reproductive rights.
