The World Bank has given the assurance that it will continue to invest in Ghana’s education sector because it is the key to the socio-economic development of the people.
The Managing Director of Operations of the World Bank, Anna Bjerde, said developing the human capital through education would help lift people out of poverty, improve living conditions and create jobs.
She said this when she visited the New Weija Gbawe Municipal Assembly Basic School 1 in the Greater Accra Region , as part of her four-day visit to Ghana to inspect the progress and impact of ongoing projects in the country.
The school is a beneficiary of the $210 million Ghana Accountability and Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP) being funded by the World Bank between 2019 and 2026.
The project which is being implemented in 10,500 schools across the country is meant to improve the quality of education in low performing basic schools, particularly in the areas of literacy and numeracy.
Ms Bjerde, who is visiting Ghana for the first time since her appointment in April, also visited the Ghana Tech Hub and the Ghana Innovation Hub at the Accra Digital Centre, which are projects being funded by the World Bank.
She was accompanied by the World Bank Vice President for Western and Central Africa, Ousmane Diagana; the Country Director for Ghana and Sierra Leone, Pierre Laporte and other senior World Bank officials.
The Municipal Education Director of Weija-Gbawe Municipal Education Directorate, Charles Odoom, said the New Gbawe Municipal Assembly Basic 1 School was among seven of the 28 schools in the municipality which benefitted from the GALOP.
While in Ghana, Ms Bjerde would mobilise the private sector’s financial and innovation capacity for delivering on the country’s development and global challenges facing low and middle income countries.
She would pay a courtesy call on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and hold high level discussions with the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.
They would discuss critical areas of the World Bank’s Ghana programme including macroeconomic, energy sector issues, Ghana’s International Monetary Fund programme, debt restructuring and structural reforms needed to accelerate sustainable economic growth over the medium to long term.
The World Bank team would also hold consultations on the World Bank’s Evolution Roadmap with Parliamentarians, civil society organisations and the private sector.
The GALOP project being implemented in 10,750 low performing schools across the country is meant to improve the quality of education in low performing basic schools particularly in the areas of literacy and numeracy.
The Deputy Minister of Education, Reverend Ntim Fordjour, said the GALOP had benefited about 10, 750 schools in the country.
He said the programme had been phenomenal in improving teaching and learning in the beneficiary schools.
BY KINGSLEY ASARE
