There has been a drastic reduction in the number of schoolchildren in basic schools in Kweikuma and Ofankor communities in Ghana.
Parents of these children are low-income earners and hardly get enough money to provide the basic needs of these kids such as stationery, uniforms, lunch and medical bills. These parents also live in shanty homes with majority of them living in make-shift wooden kiosks as shelter. Majority of these children have either one parent being unemployed, staying with adopted parents or siblings and those who have some work to do are metal scrap dealers, petty traders and house helps. Out of frustration, these kids are made to drop out of school and take up petty jobs such as hawking, begging for alms, cleaning windscreens of vehicles in traffic, and metal scrap gatherers to earn tokens to support their families. Ideally, these kids are supposed to be in school learning so that they can have a bright future to turn around their family fortunes in the future.
The children from these impoverished areas who remain in school have a high tendency to quit school since there is no improvement in their current situation. They do not have the requisite books to use in school, so their academy performances have gone down as testified by the head teachers of these schools. They really need a sustainable programme to support them to be able to continue with their stay in school and improve in their academics.
EduDrive Table Tennis (ETT) is a programme developed to encourage children in Kweikuma and Ofankor communities in Western and Greater Accra regions respectively to go and stay in school. The programme will be assisting children in their education set up by organising after-school academic classes in English, Mathematics and Science and also offer opportunity for the kids to learn table tennis through organised training sessions.
Target 4.1: By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes.
Ping Sans Frontieres, Ghana Table Tennis Association