The government in its quest to make education equitable by bringing children back into the classroom through the Ghana Education Outcomes Project (GEOP) has successfully transitioned 17,340 children into mainstream schools.

Ghana Education Outcome Project (GEOP), is a sub-component of the Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP) to strengthen support for out-of-school children (OOSC), in districts that have the highest number of OOSC, to transition into mainstream primary education; and improve learning in mainstream schools (a sub-set of GALOP Schools in the districts with the highest number of OOSC) targeting literacy and numeracy improvements at the end of primary grades 2 and 4 (P2 & P4).

The three-year project with funding
Foreign Commonwealth Development Organization (FCDO) grant through the Global Partnership for Results-Based Approaches Trust Fund (GPRBA-TF) and a counterpart funding of million by the government of Ghana.

The project is aimed at returning 70,000 out-of-school children into the classroom as well as improving learning outcomes in over 600 GALOP schools in 29 districts in the country was launched by President H. E Nana Akufo Addo in February 2023.

Deputy Minister of Education, Gifty Twum Ampofo speaking at the GEOP service provider assignment (Lots 1-6) annual implementation review workshop in Accra, indicated that the Nana Akufo Addo-led administration is very determined to ensure every child has access to basic education.

"With the help of H.E Nana Akufo Addo's agenda to ensure that we achieve SDG 4 to make sure that every child receives education because the valuable asset of any nation is not the Gold, the Diamond, the lithium rather the manpower, the human resource and with the human resource we are leaving no stone unturned to get everybody on board both those in school and out of school. GEOP is a special project that we have rolled in for children aged 7 to age 14 who are out of school to return to the classroom and receive teaching on literacy, numeracy, and skills to be absolved into the mainstream to make sure that every child grows up to be a responsible adult".

According to her, the project after one year of existence has transitioned over 17, 000 children back to school.

GEOP Coordinator, Nana Fatima High underscored that the project has been very impactful since it was launched.

Emphasizing that, the second cohort commenced with over 20,000 children going through the accepting learning programme.

"We have done a lot and we are very grateful so far we have taken children who have never been to school and those who have been out of school for one year or more, we have taken them through the 9 months accelerating learning programme".

"They learned numeracy and literacy and now the children are in school transition to mainstream school which is a great achievement. Now we have started the second cohort of children, over 20,000 are going through the accelerating learning programme for 9 months to learn numeracy and literacy, and then come the next academic year they will also be transitioning into mainstream school" Nana Fatima High.

She noted that her outfit is determined to see more children back to school, hence measures are been put in place to achieve that.

Nana Fatima High commended everyone, especially service providers for their efforts toward the success of the project which would go a long way to enhance educational development in the country.

Some service providers were honoured with motorbikes and an undisclosed sum of money for the tremendous work done in their various districts.