Ecobank Day Marked by Supporting Child Education

By / Published October 26, 2015 | 12:19 pm

Ecobank has launched a countrywide child education campaign that will see it mobilize its resources to ensure that children from underprivileged schools receive learning material, mentorship and career counselling.

The initiative targets to deliver learning material to more than 15 educational institutions across five counties in the country.

Since the implementation of the free-primary education there has been a significant increase in school enrolment across the country. However, essential facilities such as exercise books, pencils, desks, class rooms and other basic education amenities are inadequate for the children in schools.

“In making primary education compulsory and free for all, Kenya has therefore witnessed an upsurge in school enrolment. However, there still remains a challenge at secondary school level where costs are high and out of reach for some people. Ecobank seeks to fill this gap to ensure smooth learning for underprivileged children,” said Ecobank Kenya Managing Director Ehouman Kassi.

As the globe adopts the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) once the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) expires at the end of 2015, quality education is at the top of this agenda. Under these objectives, countries are encouraged to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all.

Ecobank is at the forefront to support governments and education institutions to offer quality education through partnerships.

In Kenya, despite the major strides made legislatively to ensure education for all, children from poor households are four times more likely to be out of school than those of their rich counterparts. Major disparities in essential infrastructure between rural and urban schools also remain high.

Kassi said that despite all the successes of free-primary education there is a risk of all that being in vein if children from the poor communities don’t get valuable education. Quality is afforded through having useful and updated education material.

Kassi spoke while flagging off dozens of exercise books to be given to children in 16 secondary schools in different parts of the country where the bank operates.

He said October 24^th had been set aside to commemorate Ecobank Day across 36 countries in Africa where the bank is represented with interventions in the areas of education and health.