The UK will provide £105 million in new funding to help Ghana meet the UN target of giving every child a primary education by 2015.

The Minister for International Development, Gareth Thomas has announced while on a visit to the country. The funding comes after Ghana set ambitious targets for the implementation of their national education strategy and put forward ideas for much needed reform across the education system. The new education strategy will provide the launch pad to achieving the goal to provide universal access to quality basic education by 2015.

"Ghana's new education plan sets an important example for other African countries developing their own long-term education strategies. We would like to see more international donors supporting governments, like Ghana, with credible ten-year plans aimed at getting all children to benefit from good quality primary education," Gareth Thomas said.

DFID support in Ghana will help the country reach 100% enrolment by targeting the estimated 1.3 m children who remain out of school, and will seek to improve the teaching and learning environment that encourages more children, especially girls, to complete primary education.

A paper setting out how the UK government plans to help cut extreme global poverty over the next five years was launched last week. It sets out the government's support for the removal of school fees for primary education in order to help increase student enrolment in developing nations.

Ghana's abolition of school fees has seen a sharp rise in the number of children in primary and junior secondary schools. Enrolment of 6-11 year olds in primary schools has jumped by 400,000 in 2005/06, an increase of 14 per cent on the previous year.

From 1998 to 2005 the UK has committed £50m to Ghana's Education Sector Support Programme. Ongoing work in the education sector is closely aligned with support from the likes of the World Bank, the Education for All Fast Track Initiative (FTI) and the Netherlands Government.

The FTI brings international partners together to support national education plans. It estimates that by 2008 up to 60 countries will have credible plans to get all children into primary education by 2015. DFID will disburse £10m each year until 2015, subject to satisfactory performance on agreed sector outputs and MDG targets.