Regional Advisory Information & Network Systems

Educational Support

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Providing Educational Support

Since its inception in 1996, RAINS has worked to promote basic education, particularly for girls. Since 1996 enrolment levels for girls in Ghana have substantially increased. The modest contribution by RAINS to such change has included the following:

• The provision of a girl’s dormitory each at Savelugu Senior High School and Gushegu Senior High school.
   

• The Provision of a school bus and separate improved pit latrines for boys and girls at the Yumba Special School in Tamale which provides education for 110 special needs children.
   

• Renovation of school blocks and provision of mattresses and furniture to over 15 schools in the Northern Region.
   

• The promotion of education for girls through provision of learning materials and uniforms to over 10,000 girls, who would otherwise have not gone to school.
   

• Campaigning at the local level with teachers, parents and local officials both traditional and non traditional on the importance of education for all in 15 Districts of the Northern Region.   
   

• Establishing and strengthening local level committees that promote education for girls e.g. CSTs, SHG, CCC and CDAs in these same districts.

As an NGO our ability to provide infrastructure is limited. Communities need to be organised to work with their local government so they themselves can encourage the government bodies to provide the physical infrastructure and other materials needed to ensure their children have a reasonable quality of basic education. Programs have been put in place over the last 8 years by GOG to ensure the MDG 2 is met on basic education. RAINS have thus been able to engage with agencies such as Parent Teachers Associations (PTAs), local officials, government agencies such as the Ghana Education Service (GES), District Assemblies, and other Civil Society Organisations to put this notion into practice. We have conveyed a positive image at all times and gained a good reputation in the educational field.

There is much work still to do in this field since primary school infrastructure is still inadequate across the Northern Region. For example, the current teacher-student ratio in many primary schools is 1:75. Poor school conditions is a deterrent when trying to convince parents, especially foster aunts, that school will be of educational value to children, because foster children are commonly depended on in the family for domestic and agriculture work. We estimate that only 50% of fostered children are currently attending school.

In 2010-2013 we plan to continue working with the communities, strengthening their ability to plan and act together. We will train PTAs, SMCs and CSTs on record keeping, internal governance practices and negotiation, and provide support to the communities so they can lobby and negotiate with GES and the District Assemblies. We will also support the development of sport in interested schools. Furthermore we will work with the communities to build 4 more schools in rural areas. The expected outcome is that by 2013 CSTs, PTAs and SMCs will be ensuring that all children of school age are in schools that are equipped to provide quality education.