Dubai Cares, part of United Arab Emirates (UAE) Vice President Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives, has announced that it will fund a three-year teacher training programme in Ghana to upgrade kindergarten education and enable KG schoolchildren to flourish in primary school.
The programme valued at US$469,000 is in partnership with Sabre Education and is set to benefit 7,420 teachers directly and 7,700 KG schoolchildren aged 4-6 years indirectly, in the country’s Central and Western regions.
Dubai Cares’ support aims to enhance early years’ pre-service teacher training in Ghana, building on five years of successful implementation and replication of Sabre Education’s Fast-track Transformational Teacher Training programme in the central and western regions of Ghana.
The programme also seeks to upgrade existing kindergarten classrooms through teacher training and learning resources, converting them into model practice classrooms for KG1 and KG2. Moreover, the programme aims to promote sustainability through empowering the teacher training colleges and Ghana Education Service to continue supporting and monitoring newly qualified teachers.
Commenting on the launch of the new programme, Annina Mattsson, Programmes Director at Dubai Cares, said, “Ghana is a great example of how investing in education can positively uplift an entire nation. Thanks to increased government spending, the country has had strong economic growth in the last two decades, fueled by a better educated and more mobile workforce that aspires for better job opportunities in a more diversified economy and saw the country’s poverty rate cut by half over the same period.
“With our new programme, Dubai Cares is supporting Ghana’s government’s priority on early childhood education as a major contributor to children’s long-term development and strengthening the training framework for newly qualified teachers. Through our partnership with Sabre Education, we are eager to contribute to the development of the KG education system in Ghana and help to empower future generations.”
Dominic Bond, CEO of Sabre Education, stated, “At Sabre Education we are forging a reputation as a specialist in the early year’s sector, building insightful and evidence-led teacher training programmes that have evolved through more than ten years of close collaboration with the Government of Ghana.
He added that the Fast-track Transformational Teacher Training programme is globally recognised as an integrated approach to systemic change that addresses education inequalities for four and five-year-old Ghanaian girls and boys and promotes active and play-based learning as a foundation for 21st-century skills.”
Source: Graphic.com.gh
