Tamale, March 3, GNA - The Northern Network for Education Development (NNED), an NGO has appealed to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), sponsors of the Catholic Relief Service's (CRS) School Feeding Programme not to wind-up its operations in the three Northern Regions.

The NGO says there is already an existing disparity in the development of education between the North and the South and therefore the withdrawal of the programme in 2008 would help collapse education in the three regions.

The NNED, which is dedica ted to promoting equitable access to quality education for all in the North, explained that despite government's interventions, such as the Capitation Grant and the School Feeding Programme, these measures were still inadequate to promote quality education in the area.

Mr. Eric Duorinaah, NNED Coordinator made the appeal at the General Assembly Meeting of the NGO in Tamale on Thursday. Members of the NNED from the Northern, Upper East and Upper West, Chiefs, Regional and District Directors of Education as well as NGOs in education attended the meeting.

Mr. Duorinaah called on people in the North to be more concerned about sending all children of school going age to school rather than talking about gender disparity.

"There are many more children who are not in school than those in school now, he said, adding: "We need to go beyond the enrolments in classroom and to concentrate on how we can work to get all children enrolled in school".

He tasked "District Education for All Teams" (DEFAT) to focus on issues of school dropout since previous strategies adopted did not help to encourage people to send their children, especially the girl-child to school.

The NNED Coordinator urged chiefs and politicians from the three Northern Regions to be pro-active in ensuring that issues of elopement and betrothal of schoolgirls are addressed.

Mr.Musah Alhassan Jawula, Executive Chairman of NNED said education standard in Northern Regions were not the best and appealed members of NNED to work hard to encourage parents to send their children to school and ensure that they stay to complete their basic school. "A good quality basic education enables one to take control of one's life and what goes around one's environment", he said.