The Ghana Association of Bankers (GAB), T2T International, and key corporate institutions today held a roundtable meeting to discuss corporate Ghana’s support for quality education for personal and sustainable national development.

The meeting observed with concern the number of children in Ghana who do not complete primary education. These children and youth, the discussion agreed, would invariably have less than a fair shot to get a decent job, to escape poverty, to support their families, and to develop their communities.

Corporate bodies present at the meeting included Ecobank, Barclays Bank, GCB, Standard Chartered Bank, UMB, Zenith Bank, Gold Fields, Virtual Point Associates, Star Ghana, the Northern Development Fund, and Teach2Teach International (T2T).

T2T International has developed a programme to bring the poorest and hardest to reach children into the education system. Simply known as the Community Volunteer Teaching Programme (CVTP), the programme trains community volunteer teachers in the best, modern, child-centric teaching practice, along with wider leadership skills with particular focus on numeracy, literacy, problem solving and learning through participation.

Recent reports posit that providing every child with access to education and the skills needed to participate fully in society would boost GDP by an average 28% per year in lower-income countries for the next 80 years. This can contribute significantly to achieving the ‘Ghana Without Aid’ objective.

The strong moral imperative to address the current situation is beyond doubt. That such a high number of children in Ghana, especially in the North, do not have the basic skills they need to enter the labour market ought not to be the case, the meeting noted.

Investment in education is investment in sustainable growth and prosperity. The evidence to that effect is overwhelming just as the direct link between access to quality education and economic and social development for both individuals and countries is beyond dispute.

As the engine of economic growth, private sector needs skilled workforce and that requires strong and responsive education systems. Getting the pathway right should be a shared interest of the private sector, governments and citizens, particularly in fast-growing developing countries.

T2T’s innovative programme builds on the significant impact of two pre-existing training and pedagogical programmes proven to work over 20 years, creating a scalable, high impact new model with a huge multiplier effect in the process.

It’s been beneficial to unemployed young people (particularly women) and continuously supports them to gain professional in-service training and a foothold in teaching. The sustainability of the TCT programme depends on support from Corporate and Social Responsibility funders in Ghana.