Opening of the third term of school today

Alice with pupils on opening day of third term

Alice with pupils on opening day of third term

Today, May 12th, is the opening day of the third and final term of the school year. I went to the school today to greet the children and teachers and get the final term of our first year off to a good start. Amid the excitement, there was a sad note because one of pupils, Fataw, lost his father. After school ended, we went to offer our condolences to the family. This current school term will end on July 30th. A new learning activity for this term, because of the rains, will be to help the pupils establish a garden, which has rich opportunities for learning at this stage of child development.

Official school inauguration scheduled for May 27th!

One external view of the new school at Bomboazio

One external view of the new school at Bomboazio

The big news is that PAMBE Ghana and the village of Bumboazio are organizing an official inauguration of the school on May 27. Why do this, you may ask, since the school has been open since classes begun last October? Well, the reason is because PAMBE wanted to have a record of a successful school year before having this event. We hope to have the Regional Minister (equivalent of the state governor in the US), the regional Director of Education, the members of Parliament from the Mamprussi area, traditional chiefs...and...well the list goes on! We are inviting over 200 dignitaries, and hope about 100 accept. This event, if successful, will be a huge boost to raise awareness of PAMBE Ghana and our model to improve primary education in northern Ghana. It will greatly improve the recognition of PAMBE's work and begin to strengthen our institutional ties with the Ministry of Education, the local governments, and other leaders in the area, for in-country support of our program. So, keep your eyes on this space! Will keep you posted on the preparations and the exciting event itself. The count down has begun!