A section of the pupils and participants at the launch
The British Government on Thursday launched a €2-million girl-child education project dubbed: ‘Making Ghanaian Girls Great (MGCubed),’ at Ningo-Prampram in the Greater Accra Region. It is believed to be Ghana’s first ever interactive distance-learning project.
The project is funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) – a separate department under the British Ministry for International Development. It is to be implemented by GEMS Education Solutions – global education provider – and is expected to provide education for over 8,000 students within the next two-and-a-half years in 72 schools in six districts across two regions.
MGCubed aims at improving the overall education standards of girls and address absenteeism in schools at Nkwanta South and Kadjebi in the Volta Region and Ada East, Ada West, Ningo-Prampram and Shai Osudoku in the Greater Accra Region.
Deputy Director, DFID Ghana, Charlotte Pierce, in a speech at the launch, stated that Great Britain was committed to providing quality education for young girls and boys in Ghana.
‘Great Britain has supported education in Ghana for many years. We are currently helping 120,000 girls and boys who have dropped out to return to primary school; and over 80,000 disadvantaged girls to complete their secondary school. The Great Britain Government is committed to helping more young people and in particular, for more girls to go to school and learn,’ she said.
She observed that the provision of education for girls was one of the surest ways of helping them (girls) benefit from opportunities that the modern world has to offer.
Ms. Pierce however, bemoaned the fact that many girls in Ghana and around the world continue to face varied challenges in accessing quality education.
According to her, Great Britain recently launched an educational programme dubbed: ‘Girls Education Challenge’ to enable one million girls across the world to access education.
‘The Girls Education Challenge is supporting the work we are launching today. It is providing computers, projectors, solar panels and other equipment to your schools,’ the British official said.
‘This work is a pilot – an experimental one. We want to learn whether providing lessons from the team in Accra and the after-school activities is worth starting in other schools in Ghana,’ she added.
The Project Director of GEMS Solutions, Dr. Gordon Carver, said one of the components of the MGCubed programme is ‘our After-school Wonder Women Sessions, which will invite up to 10 out-of-school girls to join the 40 in-school girls for an afternoon Girls’ Club,’ adding that ‘through the In-school programme from our modern studio with two teaching rooms built in, the students will receive remedial instruction in English Language and Mathematics to aid completion of their basic schooling and further their progression into secondary education.’
According to Dr. Carver, ‘Research has shown that children respond positively to strong role models. Our goal with Wonder Women is to inspire girls and boost their confidence by showing them that there are women in Ghana from similar backgrounds to themselves who work in every profession, achieving amazing things.’
He said, ‘MGCubed’s primary objective is to improve access for young girls in deprived communities so that they can receive increased and improved instructional time through our remote interactive learning system.’
BY Melvin Tarlue
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