Tamale, May 6, GNA - The Ghana Education Service (GES), with the support of UNICEF, is to develop a comprehensive complementary

education action plan to cater for the educational needs of disadvantaged children who as a result of unfavorable socio-economic and cultural practices in their communities are out of school. A draft policy on the plan has been completed and is awaiting approva= l

of the GES with the support of major stakeholders in education. Ms. Benedicta Naana Biney, Acting Director General of the GES, said

this in a speech read for her at the Northern Regional Education Sector Review

meeting in Tamale on Thursday. She said there were about 600,000 children who were out of school in

the country and expressed the hope that the implementation of the action

plan would offer the opportunity for this category of children to access

mainstream formal education and serve as preparatory grounds for them to

catch up with their peers already in school. Mrs Biney expressed regret at the low numeracy and literacy rates i= n basic schools and appealed to teachers to put in their best to reverse the

trend. Ms Biney said during the 2009 academic year the GES provided financial and material support to needy girls in a bid to achieving gender parity in education. She said this was done through the establishment of scholarship schemes for girls under which the basic education scholarship program

funded by the USAID. It was to sponsor 3,235 girls and pupils with special education needs

with school materials made up of uniforms, bags, exercise books and other items. She said 80 girls in Junior and Senior High Schools in the Bole District were also given bursary while in the Bunkprugu/Yunyoo District 336

girls were supported in the form of payment of school fees, supply of

school uniforms, stationery, footwear and school bags. Mrs Elizabeth De-Souza, Northern Regional Director of Education, said the Chereponi, Saboba E.P and Gamabaga Senior High Schools were

absorbed into the boarding system while Karaga SHS was also absorbed into the

public system. She appealed to the government to ensure that more schools in th= e region were boardenized in view of the peculiar challenges facing the regio= n

and also called for the establishment of SHS for the Central Gonaja District. Mrs de Sousa said learning outcomes in some districts in the region

were not encouraging because of the high percentage of untrained teachers

and appealed to the district assemblies to sponsor more teachers into

teacher training institutions so that they could come out to serve their communities. She spoke about high absenteeism and lateness by teachers to school

and said it was regrettable that the majority of the culprits were the indigenes

of the area. Mr Moses Bukari Mabengba, Northern Regional Minister, stressed

the importance government attached to education, saying that over 36 SHSs

had been constructed in the region under the emergency infrastructure

projects programme. He said in the last three years the increase in the capitation grant had led to a significant increase in enrolment in school.