GEIG Academic Support Program Boosts Girl Students Forward!

 

After Girls Education of Ghana (GEIG) began its academic support programming in August 2014 — and continued to offer supplementary Saturday classes during the 2014/2015 academic year — we are happy to announce that steady progress is being made: GEIG continues to champion girls’ equal right to access education and advocate for the inclusion of ALL learners in the Ghana education system.

Many thanks to the Benstel School System in Kumasi and Ediforth Memorial Prep School for providing us classroom space to hold the Saturday class sessions.

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Since starting GEIG’s program, our girls have seen a 66 percent improvement in Math, a 58 percent improvement in Social Studies, and a 58 percent improvement in English. In addition, our provision of financial support has improved attendance rates by 90 percent.

Hamdalatu will be our first GEIG student to enter senior high school. Barbara Gyasi, a current JH2 student, is so motivated and encouraged by her performance that she, too, took the Basic Education Comprehensive Exams (BECE) to skip a class and begin senior high school next year. Jessica Anyido has placed first in her class for three consecutive semesters, and a majority of our girls are performing in the top tenth of their classes.

With all of our successes, we still learned that three of our girls have been diagnosed with a combination of dyslexia and dyscalculia — learning disabilities that if not well managed, can discourage students from continuing their education. These diagnoses further motivate me and the GEIG teams in Ghana and New York City to seek the best supports for them.

We want them to excel in school without feeling marginalized. With support, their achievements can highlight the different ways in which we all learn.

There’s Something New About Our Vacation Classes This Summer

Last year’s vacation classes – the inaugural session – served as an orientation for students who had just been recruited to the program. They had the opportunity to interact with students from another region; for many of them, it was the first time they met someone from another part of Ghana. Students also benefited from academically enriching activities, such as reading, vocabulary builders like Scrabble, and debate clubs.

It is our goal to improve upon last year’s model and strengthen mathematics competency, critical thinking, and presentation skills as part of our program this year. For these reasons, we are excited to announce that we have partnered with Lancaster University-Ghana to host our girls in the Greater Accra region for this year’s session. An affiliate of Lancaster University-UK, Lancaster University-Ghana offers a range of undergraduate courses, including Psychology, Marketing, Accounting, Finance, and Computer Science.

We are grateful to Lancaster for providing us with classroom space, dorms, and access to their lecturers to support our girls and volunteers with presentation skills and their foundations courses. Hopefully, one of our girls will be able to attend Lancaster University one day. We invite you to visit us on our open house on August 5, 12, and 19th at the campus in East Legon.

RSVP by sending an e-mail to Eric Yeboah at eric@girlsedgh.org.

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