The Christmas Calendar Projects (CCP)-(Wing School Concept) 2013-2016
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In a similar fashion, Choice Ghana with Funding from Danida through Ibis Ghana implemented the Ibis Christmas Calendar Project dubbed “Wing School” in the East Gonja District. Just like the CBE, the wing school aims at improving access to formal education to out-of-school children in hard-to-reach communities. The program targeted out-of-reach communities for school going age children between the ages of 4-8 years. It is always difficult for children between these ages to commute to the nearest formal school which in this project is known as the “Mother School”. This project was contributing to achieving the education for all (SDG4) and also ensuring age appropriateness in school.
The project is called the Christmas Calendar because it is proceeds from the sale of specially designed Christmas Calendars for school children in Denmark that served as sources for Danida to fund the project. The calendars depict needy situations in developing countries such as Ghana where some children are still missing education for quality life.

In the East Gonja district, the project targeted enrolling 2,000 out of school children into school within the next three years. By the end the third year the project has enrolled 3,000 children who were younger and commute longer distances to attend formal schools.
The project is been implemented in only 20 communities across the district. But there are more of such communities with children under this age category missing out of school. There are also nearby districts with such communities where children do not get the opportunity to go to school at the right age and this normally affects the foundational skills of basic literacy and numeracy of children.

The project has been very successful with community support and more and more children have been enrolled in the wing schools exceeding its initial enrolment target of 2000 by the end of the third year. For the parents and the children it was good news and joy as they had felt left behind or forgotten. Communities lamented over been neglected for such a long time. Therefore, this model has come to give them a new hope and future, for at least now having access to education. Though the project has made tremendous achievements in terms of unearthing these children from this hard-to-reach communities, giving these marginalised and disadvantaged children hope for a brighter future. But there are still more and pertinent challenges confronting the schools and the children. Some of these include but not limited to the following

i. Absence of writing desks in some of the wing schools for children to sit and learn
ii. Unfriendly dusty environment which makes it not conducive for children to learn
iii. Absence of pavilions in some of the communities due to budget constraints. Ibis Ghana provided pavilions for 20 classes out of the 33 classes established. So children sit under local structures raised by the community people which are sometimes unsafe for the children.
iv. Inadequate teaching and learning materials for both teachers and pupils
v. Inadequate community teachers to ensure quality teaching and learning. The project recruit community teachers to handle these classes, but in some communities, the enrolments are overwhelming for the teachers to handle which therefore calls for more teachers to be recruited. But due to inadequate funding, the project was unable to recruit more teachers leaving that gap at the expense of the children receiving the best of quality of teaching and learning.
Below are some of the pictures depicting the classes and the challenges were children facing.

Structures and environments under which “wing school” children learn in the East Gonja district.

The project is been implemented together with some key education stakeholders. The District Assembly (DA) and Ghana Education Service-the state agencies- are the primary stakeholders of the project. The other stakeholders include Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the Northern Network for Education Development (NNED) and East Gonja Civil Society Association (EGOCSA).

Choice Ghana seek to empower communities to be capable of accessing opportunities for a better life.