Children of the AME Zion School at Kobedi near Chiraa in the Sunyani West District, on behalf of children from five other schools in the Brong Ahafo Region, have expressed their gratitude to the Canadian Teacher’s Federation (CTF) for putting smiles on their faces.

One of the beneficiary pupils from the school, 11-year old Olivia Agyeiwaa , who spoke on behalf of the other beneficiaries , told the Daily Guide that she and her colleagues were very happy and grateful to their benefactors who gave them not only uniforms but pairs of shoes , erasers and other learning materials.
She promised that with the new wears, nothing was going to prevent them form going to school.
However like Oliver Twist, these young children are asking for more support.

Asked what else they would love to have aside goodies given them, they ll shouted “school bag!”
The six beneficiary schools are Amomaso Presbyterian Primary, Koduakrom Presbyterian Primary, African Faith Tabernacle Primary, Nsuatre; Twumasikrom AME Zion Primary, and SDA Primary, Chiraa.
The presentation was made at the closing ceremony of a refresher workshop organized for some 50 teachers drawn from the 10 regions of the country with the aim of training the teachers to in turn train others in their various localities to improve on their teaching skills.

The participants, five from each region, had training in their respective fields of teaching including Early Childhood development, Citizenship Development, Mathematics, English and two core subjects : Library and Information Technology.
The leader of the Canadian delegation, Hellen McDonald who spoke to the Daily Guide after the ceremony, intimated that her four-member delegation would be moving to Ho in the Volta Region to organize training for some120 teachers in that region.

She was full of praises and admiration for the Ghanaian teacher for being very hard working and committed, considering the strenuous conditions under which they had to execute their jobs.
She described teaching as a very rewarding job in her home country, as teachers had all the necessary materials to work with.

She intimated that education was the vehicle which could foster the development of any country, and therefore pleaded with government, individuals and policy makers, to endeavor to take the best decision concerning the education of the country’s children in order to shape them into useful and skillful adults.
Ms. McDonald admitted that though she had been in the country several times and used to work with teachers in the classroom, the workshop had afforded her the chance to interact closely with the teachers, and that she had learnt a lot from them.
She was hopeful that the beneficiary tutors, known as result teachers, would be coordinating with the trainers, core tutors and run workshops for others.

The teachers were each presented with a certificate of participation.
The Deputy General Secretary of the Ghana National Teachers Association (GNAT), John Nyoagbe, who was also the workshop coordinator, earlier disclosed that the programme, dubbed Nkabom II, was the second part of an on-going project which has been running for the past six years, as a response to the Dakar Education For All (EFA) goals.

GNAT and CTF have been working closely with selected basic schools in rural Accra and Sunyani to identify barriers and institute interventions that will enable pupils in such disadvantaged areas access quality public education.
In all, 120 pupils benefited from the donation which cost $4,715, being the contributions from the Nova Scotia Teachers Union (made up of retired teachers) who funded the project through the CTF