Early childhood education first

Ghanaian Minister of Education, Mrs. Betty Mould Accra - Arabstoday The Ghanaian Minister of Education, Mrs. Betty Mould –Iddrisu, has reaffirmed that the government is looking to invest in early childhood education as a way to deal with the long term effects of its current economic crisis.Mrs. Mould-Iddrisu said that it is time for Ghana  to realise that solid, successful early childhood education could lay a stable and solid foundation for the children and the future prosperity of the country, reports Vibe Ghana. She said: “Our goal is that every Ghanaian and African child must be valued equally and our early childhood education and development service must meet their needs whether they live in slums remote communities or cities.” In 2007, the government incorporated early childhood education into the national public education system in an attempt to improve access to quality, affordable and sustainable early childhood education to all Ghanaian children. Quality teaching is key to early childhood education, said Professor Ingrid Pramling-Samuelson, Coordinator for Early Childhood Education at the Department of Education University of Goteborg in Sweden. Prof. Nana Jane Opoku-Agyeman, Vice-Chancellor of UCC , asked for the government to endeavor to meet the deadline of the Millennium Development Goals on education. She appealed to African Governments to provide infrastructural needs of the schools, and improve the feeding and general welfare of school children at the basic level since malnutrition was a barrier to teaching and learning in most schools, said Vibe Ghana.