Saltpond (C/R), April 26, GNA - Twenty-five districts in the country have been selected to benefit from education improvement and good governance programmes.

The programmes are initiated by Education Quality for All (EQUAL) and Government Accountability Improve Trust (GAIT) II, both non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

At a workshop for some stakeholders in education and Local Government Administration at Saltpond in the Mfantseman District, Mr Kingsley Arkorful, Deputy Team Leader of the EQUAL Project, said the aim of his organization was to improve access to basic education with special emphasis on reading skills.

Mr Arkorful said work had started in 16 districts and added that the rest of the districts would soon be taken on board.

Mr Kish Ato Odum, Education and Community Participation Advisor, GAIT II, said the two organizations which were being funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) were collaborating because their programmes had the same objective, to improve access to quality education and to promote good governance which was about improving people's lives.

Mr Odum said doling out money to people alone without their determination to develop would not bring development. "Development goes to areas where participation in communal labour is high but not where the people are lured with money to develop", he stated.

Mrs Gifty Appiah, Mankessim Area Development Programme (ADP) Manager of World Vision Ghana, urged Ghana's development partners to evaluate their performances to find out whether their programmes were impacting positively on the development agenda of the country and re-strategize where necessary to achieve results.