Stakeholders call for investment in early childhood education and development

Stakeholders in early Childhood Education and Development in the Upper East Region have called for increased investment in early childhood education and development to provide children with the appropriate foundation for lifelong learning.

They said greater attention was needed to address inadequate numbers of trained early childhood teachers, funding challenges, and delayed enrolment of children in kindergarten.

The stakeholders made the call at the 2026 third-quarter meeting of the Upper East Regional Early Childhood Development Committee, organised by the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council (RCC), with support from Children Believe, a non-governmental organisation.

Mrs Georgina Aberese-Ako, Upper East Regional Director of the Department of Children and Regional Coordinator of the Early Childhood Development Committee, said early childhood care and development was often overlooked in planning, resulting in some children aged four to five years learning under trees.

She said the sector covered areas including health, nutrition, early learning, responsive caregiving, inclusion, safety, and security, and required coordinated efforts from stakeholders.

Mrs Aberese-Ako said the committee had identified funding as a major challenge, noting that Children Believe had supported its meetings for the past three years, but the organisation’s resources were dwindling.

She said the committee therefore needed to mobilise support from other organisations involved in early childhood development to sustain its activities, including school monitoring, advocacy, and health screening.

On teacher shortages, she said government needed to train more teachers in early childhood education and ensure that those trained were posted to kindergarten schools.

She said some schools were compelled to rely on community volunteers because of inadequate numbers of trained teachers.

“Since it is a foundation, the KG or the crèche is a foundation, we will need a teacher with early childhood education because they have the skills to handle these children and help them build the foundation,” she said.

Ms Belinda Akazabre, Upper East Regional Early Childhood Education Coordinator, said although enrolment at the early grade level had improved, there was still a shortage of teachers trained specifically in early childhood education.

She said children aged four were expected to be enrolled in kindergarten in public schools and called for trained early childhood teachers to be posted to the kindergarten level to enable them to apply their specialised skills.

Ms Akazabre explained that children at the early grade level learned quickly but had short attention spans and could easily lose interest, requiring teachers with specialised skills and techniques to sustain their learning.

She said children aged four to five experienced rapid brain development, making early education critical for acquiring the knowledge and skills needed to progress through basic education.

Ms Yvonne Wonchua, an Administrator at the Upper East RCC, also called for stronger collaboration among the RCC, district assemblies, education offices, and social welfare officers to support early childhood development activities.

She said funding constraints had affected the committee’s activities and urged stakeholders to work together to mobilise resources.

Pognaba Felicia Agampoka, Queenmother of Feo and a member of the Regional Early Childhood Development Committee, urged parents to enrol their children in school at the appropriate age.

She also appealed to parents to resolve their differences without allowing them to disrupt their children’s education.

She said traditional and community leaders had an important role to play in sensitising parents on the importance of early childhood education and ensuring that children remained in school.

The meeting brought together representatives of the RCC, Ghana Education Service, Ghana Health Service, Department of Gender, Department of Social Welfare and Community Development, traditional leaders, the media and non-governmental organisations to review activities, share experiences and identify challenges affecting early childhood development in the region.

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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.