The just ended District Education Observer Project II implemented by Rite FM in collaboration with the Chrismek Rights Foundation has recorded impressive successes, an assertion by the project coordinator indicates.
Mr. Goldman Awuku Dodzi, coordinator for the DEOP II project told Rite news’ Joyce Bedeley on Thursday that the achievements chalked by the one year project cannot be underestimated.
His comments came as the team presented the project evaluation report to the regional and municipal offices of the Ghana Education Service.
The project with support from STAR-Ghana and funding from DANIDA, Ukaid and the European Union was an advocacy project pursued to empower the community and the voiceless in society to get involved in decision making and taking up initiatives which fall in line with the Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) component of the project.
“The project has come to end with a lot of successes chalked,” Mr. Awuku averred.
Some of the successes chalked by the project include the improvement of community involvement in the activities of schools through the formation of District Education Observer Committees (DEOC), the construction of a six-room unit accommodation facility fitted with toilet and bath facilities for teachers to check teacher lateness and absenteeism while residents of Abrewankor, through fundraising among other commitments, are putting up a KG block for the community.
The DEOP II project had as its core focus the aim of improving teacher attendance and enhancing community involvement in selected schools. This is to address the lack of proper functions of the SMC/PTA activities which though are mandatory elements within the educational structures, failed to strictly discharge their core responsibilities.
These lapses, Mr. Awuku said, came to light during the baseline studies of the project.
The Selection of the project schools was done in collaboration with the Yilo Krobo office of the Ghana Education Service, based on schools who though performed well, however scored a ‘good’, an indication that the quality of their pass was weak, the project coordinator added.
Though only one external examination, that is the Basic Education Certificate Examination, BECE has been conducted after the project, Mr. Awuku expressed optimism in the positive impact of the project reflecting in the yet to be released and subsequent examination results.
He said the long term vision is to see improved services at the selected schools.
Though the project has ended, the DEOC which comprises of students, teachers and parents are still working hard to sustain the outcomes of the project while Rite FM also continue to dialogue with the GES on the same gains.
He commended the regional and municipal GES, Chrismek, the Ghana National Association of Teachers, GNAT, the National Association of Graduate Teachers, NAGRAT and all partners for their contributions on the project.
Municipal Director of GES
Meanwhile, the Municipal Director of the GES, Mr. Augustine Adusei in congratulating Rite FM for the company’s intervention, hoped more of such interventions by the station will follow.
He promised to sustain the outcomes especially using the various PTAs and the Supervisor since the factors that contributed to low performances is what the project has addressed.
Going forward however, he urged that the project should in the future focus on infrastructure and TLMs which also come as another area of concern to the teachers.
Mr. Kenneth Osei Oliver, General Manager of Rite FM on his part pledged the continuous collaboration with the Ghana Education Service in the Yilo Krobo district in sustaining the outcomes of the project.
Source: Joyce Bedeley/ritefmonline.org/jbedeley9357@gmail.com
