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EDUCATION

Pay serious attention to children in deprived communities - DCE advises NGOs in education

The Nadowli-Kaleo District Chief Executive (DCE), Madam Katherine T.Lankono has stressed the need for NGOs in education to pay serious attention to children in deprived communities who cannot access basic education in the country, with emphasis on Nadowli-Kaleo District, to ensure that a sound foundation is laid for children to enable them to fit into the society.

Date Created : 2/8/2019 4:47:30 AM : Story Author : Ibrahim Muniru/Ghanadistricts.com

The DCE said this during a presentation ceremony of learning materials and tools to twin sisters on Wednesday 6th February, 2019.

The items comprised 2 set of school uniforms, 60 pieces of exercise books, pens, 2 pair of school bags and 2 pair of sandals were presented to the two twin sisters in Kuo-dandaali a farming community in the Nadowli-Kaleo district of the Upper West Region.

The sisters were identified after a team of officials from UNICEF visited the community to access the state of open defecation in the community.

The community after the team’s visit has since been declared open defecation free community.

Out of 141 communities in the district, 94 communities have been declared open defecation free in the district.

Reason for the Donation

According to the DCE when the UNICEF team visited Kuo-dandaali they saw the twin sisters, Kandow Pogzimaa and Kandow Pognaa helping their father Kandow Jato to put up a latrine in the fathers compound house, when they were asked why they were doing that, they told the team that they think is not right to defecate in the bush.

The twin sisters had stopped going to school because their father could not afford a school uniform for them.

Radio Progress team got to the community with the DCE at a time the twin sisters’ were sacked from school due to improper dressing. The girls were seen in multi colored dresses and without sandals.

Narrating to Radio Progress, the father of the twins, Mr Jato said the girls are a blessing to the Kuo-dandaali community, ‘I was surprised when the two girls told me that we need to stop defecating in the bush but they can help me build a toilet facility and also introduce to me ash and water to clean myself after using the toilet’’.

Days after their commitment, the father said he saw the girls laying blocks and called on him to come and give them moral songs while they build the facility. “Just at age 11 and they can think this way, I think God has blessed me with future nation builders,” the father added.

The DCE stressed the need for stakeholders in education to help create the needed environment which would attract children to stay in school and learn, noting that many children dropped out of school at an early stage as a result of the poor school environment they found themselves in, and which should not be allowed to continue.

The DCE pointed out that children would develop an interest in going to school only when the appropriate school environment was created, saying the government was doing everything possible to promote quality education, and it was the duty of all stakeholders to complement government’s efforts.

Pogziema has dreams of becoming a professional teacher and Pognaa wants to become a professional nurse.