IBIS-Ghana has launched a programme known as Complimentary Basic Education (CBE) in the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba district of the Northern Region.

The programme forms part of the nationwide piloting of the CBE programme, which is sponsored by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DfID) with the aim of providing education to 120,000 out-of-school children in deprived communities and building Government capacity to take on this role.

The programme would be launched in three other districts namely, East Gonja, Bole and Kpandai.

This was contained in a speech read on behalf of the programme’s director of IBIS-Ghana in charge of education, Mr. George Laar at the launch of the CBE programme at Sawla in the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba district of the northern region.

He said the programme will be piloted over a three-year period (2013-2015) after which it is expected that the government would upscale it and make it a key national education programme.

For the first year of the programme, Mr. Laar said the programme will be implemented in 100 communities in the four districts with an enrolment target of 2,500 out of school children, with 52 per cent being girls to be enrolled for the nine-month mother-tongue literacy programme

It is expected that after completion of the nine-month literacy programme, at least 80% of these learners will qualify to be enrolled into formal schools in September 2014.

IBIS is implementing the project in partnership with Partners in Participatory Development (PAPADEV), East Gonja Civil Society Association (EGOGSA), Choice Ghana as well as the Ghana Education Service, district assemblies in the four districts and the beneficiary communities.

The CBE programme covers children aged 8-14 who have either never been to school or might drop out for some reason.

The IBIS-Ghana education programmes director stated that the children are offered a nine-month course through their mother tongue in basic literacy, numeracy skills and life skills, among others, adding that teaching and learning methods are participatory and interactive.

He said the training offered to the children prepares them for integration into the formal education system. Upon completion of the course, they are expected to be enrolled into Primary 4 or above depending on the results of the tests conducted and their individual intellectual abilities.

The CBE is targeted at the most deprived and marginalized communities, where children face several barriers in their attempt to attend school.

 The CBE programme was developed based on the successes of School for Life, a functional literacy programme that was implemented in Northern Ghana for several years in the same format.

In a brief statement before he launch of the programme, district chief executive for Sawla-Tuna-Kalba district, Alhaji Isaac Dramani Mumuni thanked IBIS-Ghana for the programme stating that it falls in line with the government’s agenda of bringing education to the doorstep of the people in order to equip them for better living conditions.