Daborin community realizes dream for a fomal school

Daborin's commitment to give its out-of-school children the opportunity to reenter formal school led to the founding of a school in the community. Daborin is a rural community in Ghana's Upper East Region. Many of its school-age children were out of school because they had to travel over five kilometers each day to the nearest school.

To enable out-of-school children enter formal schools, USAID through its partner, Education Quality for All (EQUALL), provided the children after-hours education in the community. The center at Daborin started under a tree. The children received instruction from trained local facilitators in literacy and numeracy, including spoken English for eleven months.

USAID supported facilitators with bicycles and stipends, and decorated them with 'T' shirts and caps. The learners displayed their literacy and numeracy skills before the community and education officers. On one occasion, the learners read their primers in the mother tongue with fluency and displayed English vocabularies such as "It's your turn", "Do you have a book?", and "Thank you." The audience cheered and showed their admiration.

The district director of education, Mr. Francis Ayaaba, was the most excited. He did not hide his disbelief. "I am surprised, I am happy; excellent performance. We must support these learners to continue to formal school," he said. He promised opening a school for the community and later provided the girls basic school items like uniforms, exercise books, pens and pencils. He also set aside a day each year to honor the learners.

Today, Daborin has six classrooms, an office and a store for the primary school. The children now attend school in their own community. The school has seven teachers and enrolls 300 pupils, including 156 girls.

Daborin does not share this joy alone. Other communities with no formal schools now have primary schools through this USAID-supported complementary education program.