It is mid-afternoon on an overcast day in a suburb of Accra, Ghana’s capital. A crowd, including two government ministers, a World Bank director, diplomats, NGO workers and camera-wielding media, has descended upon a classroom where pupils sit around tables playing with plastic bottle tops.
This is a catch-up class for out-of-school children, aged between eight and 16, run by Ghana Education Outcomes Project that is almost entirely (85%) funded by the UK government. The resulting circus is because Jenny Chapman, the UK’s development minister, has come to see the impact of her government’s diminishing aid budget.
