President Akufo-Addo has said it is critical to ensure that education in the country at the early stages is top notch.
According to him, building quality education at the early stages would propel the child to blossom in the other cycles through to tertiary.
He has thus defended the importance of the government’s resolve to integrate the learning of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in the kindergarten.
“Thus, prioritising investments in early childhood education is critical to the educational development of our country,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo was speaking at the commissioning and handing over to the Ghana Education Service (GES) of the ICT empowered kindergarten at Kwabenya, funded by the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund).
The attendance of the President, as he mentioned, was novel. Since assuming office, his engagements in the education sector have been with the tertiary and senior high institutions.
Expressing his happiness, President Akufo-Addo indicated that the ICT empowered kindergarten, would provide “world class education to our children.”
MOTIVATION
He gave some words of motivation that today’s youth walking barefooted could be a business leader and a person of influence, stressing that “education is the equaliser of opportunities.”
He reminded the gathering, majority of who were school children, that he was the President because of education.
He said through education, the fortunes of the country could be changed and join the group of developed nations and continents.
NATIONWIDE PROJECT
The President cited Sustainable Development Goal 4.2, which seeks to ensure that by 2023 all girls and boys would have access to early childhood care. He stressed the disadvantages of lack of things that build the cognitive, core competence, language development, and other aspects of a child.
He continued that it was for that reason his government had embarked on the construction of some 350 kindergarten blocks, of which 160 had so far been completed. He said that several dilapidated blocks had also been renovated.
In addition to increasing infrastructure, the President mentioned the revision of the educational curricula from objective based of yesteryear to standard-based, which was being implemented across the country.
He explained that the standard-based curriculum of the kindergarten moves away from the focus on teacher talk time and learning for examination to encouraging critical thinking, group teamwork, and experimental learning required in the 21st Century.
The plan of the government is to construct one model kindergarten in all the 260 districts of the country.
GOOD USE
President Akufo-Addo urged the GES to ensure that the facility was used for its intended purpose, and also urged staff of the school to maintain the facility properly.
He noted that in all, some 32 regional and district coordinators, 270 kindergarten teachers, 30 headteachers and 33 district teaching support teams hade been trained to guarantee quality early childhood service delivery to the learners.
