IMPROVING EDUCATION IN GHANA

Improving education in this country remains a priority to all government agencies and NGOs. This possibly is so because the future of every country rests with the young ones, and the future of the young ones, mostly, is education. In view of this, the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA),as part of its corporate social responsibility, donated two water storage tanks (Watatank) to the St. Francis Girls Senior High School at Jirapa in Upper West Region of Ghana. Mr Titus Sorey, the Upper West Regional Director of the Authority, who did the donation, said the school merited the the tanks after they excelled in a quiz competition organized by the Authority during its tenth anniversary two years ago.

Mr Titus Sorey handing over the tanks to the Headmistress

He said the school emerged first at the district level, first at the regional level and second at the national level. Madam Rosemary Nyekpieng, the Headmistress of the school said the items donated will help the students to study and even perform better in subsequent academic exercises since it will reduce the time the students spent at the only two boreholes queuing for water. you also have a role to play in promoting quality education in your community, district, region, country and the world at large. Your little support is very vital.

ANOTHER TRIAL OF GHANA’S FORTUNE

 

                                            pic source:ghana home page

Ghana has since 58 years of independence, remained a developing countries. It has made several attempts to improve its development status. Some of these moves have turned out to be mirages due to incompetence and corruption on the part of people in authority while others are still facing the rigor of sustainability. Think of the GYEDA, SADA,YES, LEAP, among others policies which either could not be sustained or are is still dwindling. The John Dramani Mahama led administration has made another bold attempt to test the lack of the country in development by launching the 40-year Development Plan for the country 40-year dev't plan. It is thus an undeniable fact that the launch of this development plan is a laudable initiative by the National Development Planning Commission, NDPC and the government of Ghana. The 40-year development plan is undoubtedly a step towards achieving the developmental objectives of the country. However, the multibillion-dollar question about its delay is something yet to be answered. It is worth noting that there, is a vast difference between initiating a plan and implementing it. Ghana as a country is well noted for propounding good policies and documenting them but the implementation stage is never reached. The least said of the Children’s Act and Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda which were never implemented in full, the better. It is high time policy makers went beyond the mere formulation, which actually takes a lot of state’s funds to implementing it. The 40-year development plan should not be a nine-day wonder but a document that will live to see the fulfillment of its goals. Though it will be given a political connotation and undertone, there is the need for more coordinated efforts to ensure that it is fully implemented. Some policy analysts have advocated that the development plan should be divided into segments with defined numbers of years within the forty-year period so that they be easily measured and monitored. More importantly, the involvement of children and youth in the discussion process is a stepping-stone for the realization of this development agenda. Most often, policy makers and people in authority refer to children as future leaders. Is it not mere flattery when the capabilities of these same “future leaders” are not fully developed to face the leadership mantle ahead of them? Gone are the days when the views of the young were considered immature and therefore overlooked. As it stands now, stakeholders all over the world are beginning to soften their stance on the thinking capabilities of the youth having realized the importance of the involvement of children in decision-making. The fabulous speech delivered by Rebecca Obeng Kyere of Curious Minds-Ghana is a sign that this country has a future. In publishing the speeches presented at the launch on the official homepage of the speech on the child representative was left out and that leaves much to be desired in the area of children empowerment.

Rebecca Obeng Kyere of Curious Minds-Ghana

Nonetheless giving opportunity to the children at such an august forum is worth commending. it is therefore the hope of many that this will not be an end to the involvement of children in the decision making process in general and the 40-year development plan consultation yet to be conducted at regional levels in particular. It is a known fact that the inclusion of children in decision making at their early stage is one way of developing their potentials. There is a biblical saying that, train a child the right way and when he grows, he will not depart from it. Therefore, the young ones of this nation should be offered the appropriate and holistic training at the international, national, regional and local levels if they are believed to be the future leaders of this humble nation. By so doing they will be equipped with the needed capacity to man the affairs of this country in the near future. Since the implementation of the 40 year development plan will be a collective responsibility by all citizens of Ghana, it must equally be enjoy a collective involvement of persons from the top of the social ladder to the bottom throughout the consultation period. The young people should be in the driving seat to ensure a holistic development of mother Ghana. The citizens of Ghana look forward to a shared development policy formulation and implementation. Value children, value development.

WRITTEN BY PHILIP TENGZU

GHANA INSTITUTE OF JOURNALISM

_{EDITED BY LYDIA DARLINGTON FORDJOUR & WILLIAM OWUSU BOATENG}

FIGHTING MALARIA, A COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY

Renewed interest in the fight against malaria in Ghana has triggered the attention of both the private and public sectors to pull together their effort resources to conquer the disease.

It is become a menace to the development of the country and Africa as a whole.

Malaria has no less devastating effects on our health and the economy of the country. The worst of it all is losing our life to the mercy of the disease.

Bill Gates indicated that “The damage this disease does is quite incredible… The parasite has been killing children and sapping the strength of populations for tens of thousands of years … Now we can chart a course to end it.  (Cited in the 2014 AMMEREN magazine and credited to rollbackmalaria.org/worldmalariaday )

However, as we count days into 2015, much efforts are being put in place to fight the disease in order to achieve the malaria specific Millennium Development Goal (MDG). This collaborative effort sees both the private sector and the public sector striking hard against the disease.

Therefore, some preventive measures are outlined to reduce the disease infection; encouraging people not to live close to their livestock, decreasing house hold sides to, perhaps, three per room, proper drainage of water, clean gutters and to crown it all, sleeping under Long Lasting Insecticide Mosquito Nets. 

These intervention measures have seen the emergence of Non Governmental Organization (NGOs) in Ghana with deferent intervention programs to help fight the disease; the Zoom Lion Ghana LTD, Anglo Gold (AG) Malaria LTD etc.

AG Malaria LTD is a Ghanaian NGO that is contributing to the fight against malaria in Ghana. It was established about nine years ago and was formally called Anglo Gold Ashanti Malaria Control Program.  

The initiative, by a mining company called AngloGold Ashanti Ltd, is to help fight malaria in Ghana. It is currently operating in four regions, AshantiRegion, Upper West Region, Upper East Region and Central Region.

It has employed about 1500 field personnel nationwide. These personnel are given the needed training upon employment to equip them with the skills and expertise needed for killing mosquitoes using insecticide. They are also offered on the job training, usually after every six months seasonal intervals.

In a telephone interview with the Upper West Regional Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator of AngloGold Malaria ltd, Mr. Oduro Yaw Antwi, he stated that AG malaria Ltd started as an intervention to curb for the rampant complains of their staff about malaria which was causing the company a huge financial loss. He said the company lost human resources as a result and also financial loss in treating the infected persons.

For this reason, AGA Ltd initiated the strategy of spraying their workers rooms to reduce the rate of malaria infection.

This initiative became a nationwide activity after it was proposed to Global Fund and gained sponsorship from the Fund. It was therefore renamed AngloGold Malaria Ltd after it gained the Global Fund sponsorship.

Mr. Antwi said the initiative is aimed at reducing the rate of malaria infection in Ghana since it may not be possible to totally eradicate it. And the reduction will be done through spraying of rooms to destroy mosquitoes.

He indicated that in a bid to fight malaria through destroying mosquitoes, the insecticides used for spraying are changed periodically to avoid mosquitoes’ growing resistance to the insecticides. Therefore, the former insecticide that was used vectoguard, which was changed to protoguard, and the current insecticide is actelic.

Mr. Antwi also said the insecticides used have no adverse effects on the people but that, it can cause dizziness if care is not taken.

 It is therefore encouraging to note that the initiative is yielding good results in reducing the rate of malaria infection particularly in the areas of operation.

BY PHILIP B TENGZU.

GHANA INSTITUTE OF JOURNALISM.