By: Nana Achiaa Aboagye
The World Bank Managing Director for Operations, Anna Bjerde is on a working visit to the World Bank’s Financed projects in Ghana.
She first stopped at the New Gbawe Municipal Assembly Basic 1 School which is one of the beneficiaries of the Accountability and Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP).
This is her first visit to Ghana since her appointment. She undertook this duty in the company of the World Bank Vice President for Western and Central Africa, Mr Ousmane Diagana.
The International Development Association (IDA) funded Ghana Accountability and Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP) has supported 7 out of 28 basic schools in the Weija Gbawe Municipality. The project gives financial assistance to 10,500 schools nationally.
The first stop for Madam Anna Bjerde and her delegation was New Gbawe Municipal Assembly Basic 1 School, a beneficiary of the Ghana Accountability and Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP).
Through the GALOP project the school performed creditably in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) with 99 percent of candidates qualifying to enter Senior Secondary School in 2022.
The Basic 2 and 3 students exhibited their reading prowess.
A grade one teacher Madam Maria Fuseni shared her experiences with the GALOP project. She said through this project about 99 percent of the students are able to read and understand. She added that because the nature of their classrooms and how the teachers teach, the students are always happy to be in school.
The Deputy Minister for Education, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour lauded the World Bank for the initiative. He said best practices of GALOP have impacted over 10,000 schools and they are replicating it in other schools.
He thank World Bank for the great support in transforming the over 10 thousand least performing schools in Ghana’s education system. Adding that by the intervention, they’ve been able to address learning poverty and with the outcome of the national standardized test they conducted across the country in 2021 and 2022, they seen great significant improvement in the reading abilities of our leaners particularly schools that are beneficiaries to the GALOP.
He reiterated that the best practices of the project is something that they looking forward to scale to affect every school in the country including private schools for the transformation of our education system.
The World Bank Managing Director for Operations, Madam Anna Bjerde reiterated the importance of human capital to development.
She commended the teachers for their excellent skills in keeping the students learning and motivated. She said, the teachers need printers to help them print more documents in colourful forms which must be part of the teaching curriculum in making teaching attractive.
She emphasized that the ratio of students to a teacher must be reasonable, to enable the teacher to have time for the students.
She said the World Bank is committed to replicating the project in several schools across the country.
The GALOP aims to improve the quality of education in low performing basic schools and strengthen education sector equality and accountability in Ghana.
