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Ghana's Youngest Learners Tune In for Reading Program

Stacey Knott

   ACCRA, GHANA - Around the world, many children are home because of the
   coronavirus pandemic, and parents are tasked with juggling their
   educational needs, running the household and working.

   Since Ghana closed schools in mid-March to stem the virus spread, the
   West African nation has had to quickly pivot to remote learning, with
   online systems and educational TV shows for students, from kindergarten
   to tertiary. For the youngest learners, the government has partnered
   with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to launch a
   radio learning program targeting millions of primary school students.

   In a bustling community in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, mother Dora
   Oppey rounds up kids from the neighborhood to join her for a daily
   radio reading program.

   The program began two months after schools closed. Oppey says already
   her younger son's reading has improved. However, the program does
   require input from caregivers and she finds many working parents in her
   area cannot be home to supervise their children, so she offers to help,
   monitoring the children while also doing her hairdressing work.

   "You know children, even when school vacates and they go [back] to
   school, when you ask them some things, they are not able to even say
   it. Look at this long time - from March -- and we don't know the actual
   time they will ask them to come to school, so that is why I am urging
   them to learn so by the time school reopens at least they will know
   something and read, at least," Oppey said.

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