Teach For Ghana on Tuesday, June 25, at Ashesi’s Norton-Motulsky Hall, successfully organized its 2019 Institute’ opening ceremony to officially induct the newly recruited 2019 fellows into the Teach For Ghana Leadership Development Program.

The event also kicked-off a five-week pre-service workshop aimed at equipping the fellows with skills in pedagogy, classroom management, setting classroom culture, engaging with children, and leadership in the classroom.

Teach For Ghana, a movement of solution-driven leaders expanding educational opportunity to all children in Ghana.

Operates by annually recruiting Ghana’s best and brightest recent university graduates and young professionals from varied academic backgrounds, giving them intensive teaching and leadership training, and posting them to underserved communities as full-time teachers to teach Science, Mathematics, Information Technology, and English for two years.

After completing the two-year commitment, fellows become members of the Teach For Ghana Alumni Network, an active group of young Ghanaian leaders, across sectors and industries, building on the transformative classroom teaching experience to bring about systemic change in Ghana’s education sector.

In the highly selective program, 33 fellows were accepted this year from a pool of over 633 applications received from Ashesi University, University of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, University for Development Studies, University of Cape Coast, and others.

This years’ 2019 Institute opening ceremony took place at Ashesi University College; the home of Teach For Ghana’s pre-service workshop.

At the event, the Chief Executive of Teach For Ghana, Daniel Dotse, congratulated the 33 newly recruited fellows for making it into the program.

During his speech, he lamented over the high number of children in Ghana who drop out of school before Senior High School and in the process are not able to access tertiary education.

Daniel made the newly recruited fellows understand that it is unjust for the socio-economic background and geographical location of children living in Ghana to ultimately determine their life outcomes.

Daniel further pushed the newly recruited fellows to have the mindset that every child in Ghana can and should have the opportunity to gain access to quality education and acknowledged the bold step the fellows have taken to join the fellowship.

He finally encouraged the recruits that even though their two-year journey in the deprived communities will be challenging, it would be gravely fulfilling and rewarding in the end.

Also, with a message through the Chief Executive, the Board Chair of Teach For Ghana, Dr. Margaret Nkrumah, mentioned to the fellows that the mission they are embarking on will transform not only the lives of their students but also their own, and that therein lies the hope for the future of Ghana.

Speaking at the event, a representative from ZEN Petroleum, Lambert Akwa, urged the fellows to be committed to serving the children and the communities they would be placed in as teachers and leaders.

He asked that fellows while serving in the deprived communities as teachers should make all efforts to inspire creativity and aspiration in the children they teach, adding that, while change is hard in the beginning it is beautiful at the end.

Daniel Dotse also recognized the Teach For Ghana partners that make it possible for the organization to execute on its mission.

Partners such as ZEN Petroleum, ENI Oil Exploration and Production Ghana Ltd, Vitol Foundation, Kofi Tawiah Foundation, The Catalyst Fund (managed by Teach For All), SWIFT, Ashesi University, Ghana Education Service, and The National Service Scheme.

Daniel shared his profound gratitude for the partners’ constant support to the vision and mission of Teach For Ghana in helping to raise leaders who will work to make sure that one day all children in Ghana will have the opportunity to attain a quality education