The Ghana office of Right To Play, an education-focused nongovernmental organization has donated educational and sanitary materials to the Ghana Education Service (GES) to help in the continuous education of pupils especially in rural communities.
The organization at the presentation ceremony on Tuesday said with the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and its resultant closure of schools, many pupils in rural Ghana risk missing out on quality learning while their counterparts undertake online learning.
The Country Director for Right to Play Josephine Mukakalisa said the aim of the presentation is to enable the Ghana Education Service rollout a new way of ensuring that learning continues even though schools are closed.
She noted that material is to help volunteer teachers visit homes and deliver quality literacy and numeracy education as well as education on COVID-19.
“We are supporting the ministry’s initiative to continue to support children to learn from home. With the pandemic, the children are unable to come to school but we have volunteer teachers who are committed to their work and are ready to continue supporting children in their homes to get education and get information on prevention of COVID-19.
The items donated include 4,000 exercise books, 3,000 COVID-19 education materials, 1,200 pieces of face masks, 4,000 storybooks, 4,000 pens and pencils, 50 boxes of handwashing soaps, 7000 pieces of hand sanitizers, and 250 boxes of hand gloves.
The items are for onward distribution to education directorates in the Keta, Ga South, Kumbungu, Tolon and Savelugu districts to “provide supplemental learning, health and psychosocial support to the children and their families in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, Prof. Kwasi Opoku Amankwa who received the items expressed appreciation to Right to Play for the gesture.
He said the intervention by Right to Play is in the right direction as it will greatly serve pupils in communities that do not have access to internet, TV or radio to enable them to benefit from the government’s virtual learning programmes.
“We have online programmes that are running currently, we also have TV programmes that are running… We also are in the process of developing radio programs as well… Your initiative is a special one, in that, it is an initiative where teachers will go into the field so that they give the opportunity to communities that do not have access to radio, TV and internet,” he said.
He, however, urged the beneficiary communities to ensure that they adhere to the stated COVID-19 preventive protocols to ensure that laudable intervention does not result in negative health consequences.
Meanwhile Right to Play has pledged to provide more assistance to enable more students in deprived communities to receive education amidst the global pandemic.