The foundation Director, Eric Nyarko In pose with the kids
The Bryan Acheampong Foundation (BAF) has freely given school uniforms to 14,126 pupils from 115 basic schools in the Kwahu East District of the Eastern Region during ‘My First Day at School’ ceremony organised by the Ghana Education Service (GES). The event was part of the Bryan Acheampong School Project (BASP) initiative.
The ceremony is strategically organized at the beginning of a new academic year to bring pupils and teachers together for a new academic year.
Director for Development, Eric Nyarko, said the donation was to motivate the pupils to appreciate the importance of education, saying “education is one of the key pillars to transform a country”.
He said the Foundation was committed to supporting education in the district and beyond, adding that the donation would stimulate the pupils to learn hard and improve academic performance in the country.
The goal of BAF is to provide increased equitable access to quality and child friendly universal basic education, by improving opportunities for all children in the first cycle of education at the kindergarten, primary and junior high school levels.
The director indicated that the initiative was aimed to relieve the burden of parents and encourage attendance in schools. In all, 14,126 school uniforms were freely distributed to all 115 schools within the district.
This would encourage schoolchildren to attend school frequently and reduce absenteeism amongst them. The sponsorship programme of supplying school uniforms would not only be beneficial to the schoolchildren but also to the community, especially the tailors and seamstresses in the district. This would in turn boost economic activities within the district, he said.
He added “under the BASP initiative, the Foundation is renovating the Nkwatia SDA primary school, organising quiz competitions and distributing teaching and learning materials as part of our goal of improving education in the district.”
BAF has already supplied books to schools and established reading clubs to improve on the literacy level of pupils in the district. To this end, quiz and debate competitions were organized for all schools within the district; the finals will be held next week at Abetifi.
Acting Education Programme Manager, Ms Elsie Odonkor, admonished that education is a strong tool for preventing social vices and called on both pupils and parents to take good care of the uniforms given them.