JICA COMPASS REMEDIAL PROGRAM : PRIMARY SCHOOL PUPILS IMPROVES IN NUMERACY FROM 30.6%TO 65.3% IN OTI REGION

The Ghana Education Service,(GES) in Collaboration with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has organized it’s second regional forum at Kedjebi in the Oti region to deliberate on the outcome of the JICA COMPASS REMEDIAL PROJECT which was agreed by all the stakeholders in the region in the first forum organized in June 2022 to improve the numeracy rate among primary school pupils in the region through community participation.

The JICA COMPASS project has worked with the Ghana Education Service and it decentralized agencies since March 2020 which operates in three regions , Volta,Oti and Eastern region until March 2024 targeting 1,860 schools in total which is also the government’s education strategic plan for 2018 – 2030 which emphasized on the importance of substantive community involvement in school-base management.

Addressing the forum, Mr Godfred Dzeke from GES headquarters who is also JICA COMPASS National Trainer emphasized that during the first regional forum statistics shows that in Ghana only 60% of pupils have sufficient Maths skill at the end of their school and in Oti region, averagely, only 30.5% of learners at the primary level are proficient in numeracy hence the need for a policy implementation to improve upon the numeracy rate among primary school pupils hence the introduction of the remedial classes.

He continues that after the remedial classes introduction into the JICA COMPASS project there was an improvement among primary school pupils in the Oti region from 30.5% to 65.3% increase in numeracy rate after the first quarter which to him, more rooms for improvement for them to achieve their goal.

He further stated that the second regional forum was to deliberate on the way forward to achieve their action plan in the first forum which sees some improvement and also identify some of the challenges facilitators face in course of discharging their duty so that the JICA COMPASS project can achieve it purpose in Ghana.

Finally, Mr Dzeke called on parents to support their wards in their education and to encourage them to have time for their books and also attend the remedial classes which will help them academically.

Some of stakeholders presents were MMDCEs , Education Directors, Regional Education Director, Circuit supervisors, School Management Committees (SMCs) Headteachers chiefs , religious leaders, media etc also pledged their support for the project to yield positive results in the Oti region so far as numeracy and education is concerned .

By Patience Tawiah