Accra, March 30, GNA - The Department for International Aid (DFID), a British humanitarian organization, is to train 46,000 teachers for basic schools in the country by 2015 as part of its measures to improve education at the basic level. It will also seek to ensure that 160,000 out-of-school children were sent back to the classroom as well as give incentives to girls attending high schools in order to encourage them to stay in school. Ms Sally Taylor, DFID Country Director, said this during a tour of facilities at the British High Commission, added that DFID also intended to help Ghana create 144,000 new jobs by 2015 as well as attract 15 million pounds worth of private sector investments to the northern part of the country.

"We also intend to increase the proportion of women in Parliament, District Assemblies, Regional and Local Councils from 8% in 2008 to 20% in 2015," she said. Ms Taylor said the DFID, also known as UKAid, would develop a system that would help increase efficiency of government spending leading to savings of around 50 million pounds by 2015 as well as empower 350,000 more Ghanaians to be able to monitor and influence government performance.

Mr Mathew Johnson, the Acting British High in Ghana, said the UK government intended to give the government of Ghana support to become a middle income country as well as support its attainment of the Millennium Development Goals.

He said currently about 70% of all visa applications to the UK were granted and urged prospective applicants to always go by the rules and regulations governing visa applications to avoid being denied entry to the UK.

Mrs Manisha Kotecha, Entry Clearance Manager (Visa Section), appealed to visa applicants to be always truthful when applying for visas and give accurate and traceable information for easy processing of their papers.

"Out of the 26,000 visa applications that we received in 2010, about70% of them were issued with entry to the UK," she said.

Caption for picture: 211: Mr. Matthew Johnson, Acting British High Commissioner to Ghana addressing the Press. With him is Ms Sally Taylor, DFID Country Director.