Government has donated over hundred bags of sugar and rice to the Muslim Community in the northern region to assist them during this year’s fasting. The Regional Minister on behalf of the President presented the items to the leadership of the Muslim community. The beneficiary communities include Anbariyya community which took home 30 bags of sugar, 20 bags of rice; central mosque took the same number of items while the Ahmadiyya community took 10 bags of sugar and 5 bags of rice. The Deputy Head of Anbariyya, Sheikh Tanko Abubakari Issahaq who received the items on behalf of the Muslim community thanked the government and the regional coordinating council for their support. Sheikh Tanko Abubakari Issahaq prayed for Allah’s guidance for all government officials in the discharge of their responsibilities. Sheikh Tanko also prayed to Allah to shower his blessings on the people of northern region by providing them with adequate rain. 

About 144 teenage girls became pregnant in the first quarter of 2015. According to the Northern Regional Director of Population Chief Alhassan Issahaku, the trend is very worrying hence, the need for community members and every well-meaning person to support steps designed to curb the situation. This became known when the Northern Regional Director of Population announced this at a stakeholders’ meeting on the Benefits and Patronage of Family Planning Contraceptives in Zabzugu, yesterday. Teenage pregnancies has been a source of worry for stakeholders in the health sector. Click here for more.

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) says it has cancelled 5 papers in the ongoing Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) after discovering to its dismay the papers have been compromised. The papers involved are:   English Language 2,   Religious and Moral Education 2;   Integrated Science 2;   Mathematics 2;   Social Studies 2 The June 2015 BECE started only on Monday, June 15 and were expected to be completed on Friday, June 19. As many as 438,030 candidates were registered to write the examinations in 1,446 centres across the country. WAEC said investigations were underway to unearth the full facts of the malpractice and assured it is determined to follow the case to its logical conclusion and will not shield any person, including its own, who will be found culpable. A statement issued by WAEC Wednesday confirming the cancellation said the compromised papers will be re-administered on 29th and 30th June, 2015 and a time table for the tests would be circulate

The Minister of Education, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang says the programme to make second cycle education more accessible, especially in underserved areas, is on course. To give greater meaning to the programme, the government initiated a project to build 200 community day secondary schools in selected communities. The President cut the sod for the commencement of the first phase of the project with the construction of 50 schools on March 3, 2014 at Kwaobaah-Nyanoa, near Adeiso in the Upper West Akyem District of the Eastern Region. When the education ministry took its turn at the meet the press series in Accra yesterday, Prof Opoku-Agyemang said the 50 schools in selected communities were at various stages of completion. She said the government’s policy of the progressive free SHS education would begin as announced in the 2015/2016 academic year for more than 367,565 second cycle students. Additionally, she said, with support from the World Bank under the Secondary Educati

When confronted with the fallout of childhood trauma, why do some children adapt and overcome, while others bear lifelong scars that flatten their potential? A growing body of evidence points to one common answer: Every child who winds up doing well has had at least one stable and committed rela­tionship with a supportive adult. The power of that one strong adult relationship is a key ingredient in resilience — a positive, adaptive response in the face of significant adversity — according to a new report from the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, a multidisciplinary collaboration chaired by Harvard’s Jack Shonkoff. Understanding the centrality of that relationship, as well as other emerging findings about the science of resilience, gives policymakers a key lever to assess whether current programs designed to help disadvantaged kids are working. “Resilience depends on supportive, responsive relationships and mastering a set of capabilities that can help us respond a