Transitioning into 2019 with Partnerships
The 2018/2019 academic year has been very dynamic in the history of Exponential Education. This is the year we saw a great transition, where Expo was handed over completely to local management who report to the Executive Director.
Several measures are being put in place by the management team to partner, network and build connections to expand the programs to reach more students who really need our help. Therefore we tried our best to attend networking events and open forums on development issues. We have approached government officials and private institutions to make our dream a reality.
One of the events we have been involved in is the Bar Camp Accra Event which took place in Accra the capital city of Ghana. It was a great event that brought together people from different professional backgrounds who have been successful in their various fields to mentor and direct beginners and small start-up businesses and organisations.
It was a great pleasure talking to mentors who gave us different ideas and views on how we can connect with bigger organisations and meaningful fund raising techniques to support our programs.
Another fruitful event we attended was an open forum on Ghanaian free SHS organised by the Volunteer Partnership for West Africa at the GNAT Hall in Kumasi, which involved government officials in charge of free SHS, heads of schools, civil society organisations, individuals and all social actors. We got to understand the rationale behind the creation of the free SHS and its significance to the people of Ghana. We also learnt about the measures put in place to make the program sustainable. We made enquiries about how long the double track system was going to last, we were assured by the Deputy Minister of Education that it is just a temporal intervention to be able to enrol the higher number of students due to the free SHS implementation.
Aside these events, we have been able to schedule meetings with the Ashanti Regional Girl Child Officer at the Ghana Education Service and The Regional Director of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection and they have all given us the assurance to help us extend our programs to various schools in the Ashanti Region. We have also spoken with some universities who will be posting student volunteers who will be trained to run programs as they do their internships with us to get practical trainings and experiences in return. There are other individuals, who are government workers, who have expressed interest to volunteer for Exponential Education.
We at Expo, are indeed in high spirits and pumped up for greater experiences.
