Stakeholders Gather to Break Down Barriers to Girls’ Education in Ghana
November 7th, 2018 | News
World Education organized a forum in Accra to study the roadblocks to education for vulnerable girls across the country, as well as how to increase access and achievement in education. The forum, titled “Leave No Girl Behind,” specifically addressed the World Education initiative “The Strategic Approaches To Girls Education (STAGE) Project,” which is was organized funded by the UK Department for International Development.
STAGE launched in Ghana in September 2018 to reduce barriers that girls face in achieving an education by providing formal and nonformal education tracks. These interventions provide literacy, numeracy, and life skills in communities where high levels of extreme poverty disproportionately affect women and girls. STAGE focuses on girls who are systematically marginalized due to factors such as early marriage, pregnancies, and disabilities.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Susan Adu-Aryee, country director of World Education Ghana, said at least 20,000 girls between the ages of 10 and 19 would benefit from the program.
STAGE strategies include developing basic training modules with teaching and learning materials, as well as peer education modules involving adolescent girls and boys as allies in promoting positive behavior change.
The project is powered by collaboration between a consortium of local World Education partners, including the Girls Education Unit of the Ghana Education Service, Afrikids, Regional Advisory Information and Network System, Pronet, Link Community Development, Prolink, Ghana Red Cross, Olinga Foundation, and the International Child Development Programme.
“We are also committed to partnering with government institutions such as the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Gender and Social Protection, Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, and the National Board for Small Scale Industries to sustain the project,” said Adu-Aryee.
World Education’s work in Ghana includes filling literacy and education gaps in multiple communities by, for example, developing mobile technology to meet health needs of people living with HIV and cocoa farmers.
