The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration has donated educational materials to five schools in Yendi, Northern Region.

The donation forms part of its "Back To School Campaign" which is a corporate social responsibility initiative.

The items include but are not limited to the following: different categories of books, dictionaries, packets of pens, pencils, pencil sharpeners, erasers, markers, highlighters, board markers, mathematical sets, calculators, school bags, school uniforms, pockets of sanitary pads and sports kits.

In addition to these items, the ministry has donated undisclosed sums of money to each of the five selected schools to enable them take care of their minor expenditures.
 
The five beneficiary schools are the Dagbon State Secondary Technical School, Abartey Junior High School, the Roman Catholic Primary School, the Yendi Jubilee Complex, and Yendi Primary Block B.

Speaking at the donation ceremony on Wednesday, 15 January 2020,  a Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Mohammad Habibu Tijani, said the schools were carefully chosen to reflect the culture, history, diversity and dynamism of educational institutions in Yendi and the role they have played and continue to play in the development of Ghana's  human resource.

The Member of Parliament for the Yendi constituency, who read the Foreign Affairs Minister's statement, explained that the 2nd Edition of the Ministry’s Back To School Campaign has taken place on the back of a successful 1st edition which was initiated and launched by Ms Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey (MP) on 5 February 2018.

Mohammad Habibu Tijani stated that the campaign seeks to demonstrate the determination of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration to give practical meaning to Ghana’s people-centred foreign policy.
 
According to him, the objective of the campaign, therefore, is to complement the ggovernment's resolve at ensuring that all Ghanaians of school-going age get access to high-quality education.

The Deputy Minister added:t "It is in tandem with the government’s policy of providing free primary and secondary education to the Ghanaian youth."

"At the global level, all of this is expected to lead to Ghana’s attainment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal four (4) on quality education, which has been mainstreamed into Government's education policy," he said.
 
"The theme for this edition: ‘Transforming Ghana; Equipping the Youth’, is, therefore, instructive. The ministry shares in the belief that the youth of Ghana are critical to the transformation agenda being pursued by the government," he stressed.

Mr Tijani further explained that the ministry also believes that the best way to empower the youth to play that critical role is to support their educational development. 
 
He revealed that in choosing to intervene in the education sector, the ministry does not, in any way, seek to assume the role of state agencies appropriately mandated by law to oversee the sector.

On the contrary, he observed, "Ours is a complementary role, focused on communities that require additional support to what the central government is already providing, and that is partly the reason the ministry has chosen to come to Yendi."

He, however, pledged the ministry's commitment to replicate the gesture across the Dagbon enclave and the regions up north.

Meanwhile, in a statement read on his behalf, the overlord of Dagbon, Ya Na Abubakar II, commended the Foreign Affairs Ministry for the kind gesture.

According to him, "This programme will support the government's efforts at providing quality education for the youth, especially the most-disadvantaged ones far away from the national capital."

He emphasised: "Education is the bedrock of any prosperous nation and that starts with a good foundation for the future torchbearers – the children."

The Ya Na, therefore, encouraged the pupils who benefitted from the donation to take their studies seriously.

A Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Charles Owiredu, was present at the event.