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Copyright 2009 Let Us Shine (Registered Charitable Trust In UK Nos: SCO37489)
Phone: +44 (0) 845 638 3225 Fax: +44 (0) 845 638 3228 Email: info@letusshine.org
The decision was simple when confronted with the following facts:
- youth and adult literacy rates in the Northern Region are the lowest in the country;
- enrolment in Primary Education in the Northern Region is 20% below the national average, and only 16% of children living in the Northern Region are enrolled in Secondary Education;
- many class sizes in schools in the Kpandai district are unmanageably large: 80 to over 120 pupils in some schools;
- on average 43% of 6-14 year olds in the Northern Region have never attended school; compared to 5% in Greater Accra;
- children begin to help farm from 4 years old and with often more than eight siblings, it is very difficult to fund their education;
- an estimated 73% of the Northern region's population reside in rural areas, where access to education is generally poor;
- we have met numerous children who are living and working in Accra, who have migrated south (sometimes independently) due to lack of educational opportunities in the northern regions; and
- the cognitive skills required to make informed choices about HIV/AIDS risk and behaviour are strongly related to levels of education and literacy
Why did we choose Kpandai, in Northern Ghana for our first project?
"Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor,
that a son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine,
that a child of farm workers can become the president of a great nation."
Nelson Mandela