The idea of new beginnings is something the Resurrection Presbyterian School and Church in the rural community of Old Saasabi is getting accustomed to.
The community was home to a missionary-established Presbyterian church over 100 years ago before it collapsed and moved from Old Saasabi to Oyibi; both in the current Kpone Katamanso district.
Fast forward to 2015 and the leadership of Oyibi Presbyterian Church moved to resurrect the church in Old Saasabi.
A school for the predominantly farming community followed three years later.
Bernard Okoe Bortey, the Resurrection Presbyterian School’s director, recalled that access to affordable education in the community was a major concern for the church at the time.
“Looking at where the community is, people found it difficult with education because they travelled far to nearby communities for schooling,” he said.
The school’s service to its remote community is a testament to how critical low-fee private schools can be.
For better or worse, they are uniquely tailored to the more deprived Ghanaians because of how affordable they are.
This goes some way to explaining what has been described as a surge in low-fee private schools in some of the poorest countries across the globe.
In Ghana, for example, it is estimated that one-third of schools are low-fee private schools.
“If low-fee private schools did not exist today, the number of out of school children that we would have to deal with would be at alarming levels,” observed Stephen Opuni, the Country Director for the IDP Foundation in Ghana.
The IDP Foundation works to support and improve educational infrastructure in private schools serving low-income families.
Its reach remains limited since it only works with schools certified by the Ghana Education Service.
