The Northern Network for Education Development has commended the government for its efforts to make quality education accessible to all children. The NGO welcomed the gains made through the introduction of the capitation grant and the school feeding programme and looked forward to a more relevant education through the new education reforms, which would begin in September, this year. This was contained in a press statement issued in Tamale on Thursday by the NNED as part of activities to mark the 6th "Global Action Week on Education". While commending the government, the statement noted among other things that, barely seven years to the target of Education for All (EFA) evidence gathered from some communities in Northern Ghana indicated that many children in these communities had been denied the right to quality basic education. The statement said the number of children denied quality basic education was significantly higher in the most distant communities and the "dark spots", including Tamale peri-urban, East Gonja and the "Overseas" areas. It therefore recommended that the Ministry of Education should instruct District Directors of Education in the target areas to do further analysis of the evidence gathered and make real commitments to getting all these children in school. The NGO said in the spirit of equity, the government, through the Ministry of Education, should review existing interventions notably the capitation grant and the school-feeding programme. It suggested that apart from the ¢30,000 that the government had absorbed as school fees, a special allocation of the capitation grant be given to the rural schools to support children and improve teaching and learning. The statement stressed the need for more involvement of chiefs in the promotion of education in the three Northern regions, saying: "With the breakdown of the extended family system, many vulnerable children are denied proper care, including education". The statement also called on MPs from the three regions to raise issues on the plight of the vulnerable children in Parliament, adding that they should increase their support to needy children. Frontline implementers of the new education reforms should demonstrate genuine commitment to bridging the development gap between Southern and Northern Ghana by stressing on the issues of equity in all policy decisions, it said. Source: GNA