Aid for self help effort? A sustainable alternative route to basic education in Northern Ghana

Northern Ghana presents an interesting case of the limitations of the conventional school system in reaching underserved and deprived populations with basic education. Due to the peculiar nature of its demographic characteristics and the socio-economic challenges that confront this area of Ghana, conventional school systems are unable to thrive and make an impact in remote areas. Many of these communities are sparsely populated and scattered making distance a hindrance to school. attendance. A major barrier to access and participation is also the cost. In poor deprived communities whether or not children attend school usually depends on the direct or indirect costs to families. Direct costs arises from schooling accessories such as uniforms, books and writing materials whilst the indirect costs are largely in the form of income lost from the child’s potential employment or contribution to household income through direct labor. Yet another obstacle is the official school calendar which usually conflicts with families’ economic activities to which the child is a crucial contributor. A growing number of NGOs and civil society organizations are introducing basic education initiatives that have been adjusted to reflect these demographic and socio-economic realities. Many of the NGOs try to promote the spirit of self-help efforts among poor rural people using strategies that encourage community participation and ownership of the basic education initiative. This paper describes and analyses the effort of one such NGO education programme known as the “School for Life” (SFL) in Northern Ghana. The paper examines the extent to which the activities of this organization are actually promoting self-help efforts in sustaining an aid initiated basic education programme. The acid test for aid effectiveness is what happens when it phases out - in that case is the initiative sustainable? The paper argues that for true sustainability to be achieved there is the need for a concerted working relationship between the aid programme provider and local government institutions because of the potential benefits that this relationship can bring in sustaining the programme once external support ends. Finally, using the SFL programme as an example, it argues that the key to promoting greater participation and commitment among rural communities towards basic education, is by showing that it can actually open up access to higher levels of education without conflicting with the socio-cultural and economic activities of the society

50 years of educational progress and challenge in Ghana

In 2007 Ghana celebrated 50 years of independence from British colonial rule. The golden jubilee offered an opportunity to take stock of how the country had progressed in expanding education and the challenges for the future. This paper offers a critique of the journey, highlighting the challenges and progress. What reforms in education has taught Ghana is that it is much easier to fix the ‘hardware’ than the ‘software’ problems of education. With huge investments from internal and external sources structural and infrastructural problems of education can be fixed. With expanded facilities access can improve. However, completion rates remain the problem, especially at junior and senior secondary where low completion rates deprive the country of much needed educated youth prepared for work and for further education and training. TVET development plans faces the challenge of ensuring that sustainable capital and recurrent investment is available to improve infrastructural facilities and thereby improve the quality of products. Fifty years after independence, although Ghana has made good progress in expanding education provision, it is still faced with the problem of securing an education system that delivers on quality and provides equitable access for all, especially the poor and disadvantaged. Until and unless significant gains are made here, the goal of producing a workforce with the knowledge and skills for development would be hard to achieve. This is the task for the next fifty years

Teacher Training in Ghana - Does it Count? Multi-Site Teacher Education Research Project (MUSTER), Country Report One

Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Las tecnologías multimedia y reforma educativa en África : el caso de Ghana

La presente contribución da un repaso a la introducción de las tecnologías antiguas y nuevas de la información en el sector educativo de Ghana. Señala cómo la reciente proliferación de las tecnologías mul timedia en el país ha alentado finalmente la introducción de las TIC en la educación. Sin embargo, el autor sostiene que buena parte de la motivación para introducir estas nuevas tecnologías en los centros educativos e institutos superiores no ha reflejado la necesidad de reconceptualizar las prácticas curriculares en la formación docente, con el fin de fundamentarlas en ideas constructivistas sobre los conocimientos y su producción. Sin esto, las reformas para introducir las nuevas tecnologías de información y comunicación en las aulas corren el riesgo de ser meramente herramientas que nuevamente se utilizan para reforzar las viejas tradiciones de enseñanza y aprendizaje en base a la trasmisión de los conocimientos sin ningún pensamiento crítico. Finalmente, el autor insiste en que los cambios curriculares en la formación docente en Ghana, y en otras partes de África, también deben reflejar las nuevas identidades de aprendizaje profesional y experiencias de aprendizaje que deben fomentar las TIC y otras herramientas mediáticas en el aula.__________________________________This contribution reviews the introduction of old and new information communication technologies in Ghanaian education. It points out how the recent proliferation of multi-media technologies in the country has ultimately encouraged the introduction of ICTs in education. However, the author argues that much of the move to introduce these new technologies into schools and colleges has not reflected the need to re-conceptualise teacher education curriculum practices to base its foundations on constructivist ideas about knowledge and its production. Without this, reforms to introduce new information communication technologies in classrooms risk becoming tools that are again used to reinforce old traditions of teaching and learning based on uncritical transmission of knowledge. Finally, the author argues that changes to the teacher education curriculum in Ghana, and elsewhere in Africa, should also reflect the new professional learning identities and learning experiences that ICT and other media communication tools are meant to foster in the classroom

Teaching at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Teacher Education in Poor and Marginalised Communities

Achieving SDG4—inclusive and quality education for all—requires every child to have access to quality teachers. However, in many lowincome countries (LICs) and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs) large numbers of children, especially in poor and marginalized communities, lack access to well-trained teachers (UNESCO, 2013/14). As a result, many of these disadvantaged children fail to meet the expected minimum learning outcomes for their grade, causing many to drop out of school in the early years. UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS), for example, estimates that six out of 10, or 617 million, children and adolescents in LICs and LMICs are not achieving minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics (UIS, 2017). The crisis is more acute in sub-Saharan Africa, where about 85 percent of children are not reaching minimum proficiency levels despite being in school (Luschei & Fagioli, 2016; Luschei & Carnoy, 2010; World Development Report, 2018). However, the crisis is not simply about the inadequate number of teachers, but also about the fact that few trained teachers know how to meet the learning needs of poor and marginalized children. These children are in school but not learning—described as the “silently excluded” (Lewin, 2011). For many of these children, the schools they have access to are so low quality that any hope of education providing a route out of poverty is unrealistic (Lewin, 2011). As Dyer (2013) points out, “the schooling available to the poorest is itself often so poor that it is likely to perpetuate cycles of deprivation as it is to interrupt them” (p.221). Ultimately, this learning crisis points to a lack of programs that can help teachers meet the needs of children at the bottom of the learning pyramid. However, some promising research shows the possibilities of effective classroom practices and teacher education reform, some of which are discussed in this chapter. The chapter is organized into three sections. First, it discusses the teacher training and supply crisis, outlining the factors that impact teachers’ abilities to meet the learning needs of children who are being left behind. The second section presents case studies of inclusive pedagogies that report positive impact on learning for children who have dropped out of school. The third and final section concludes with a discussion of the implications for reforms that can improve teacher education and close the learning achievement gap between advantaged and disadvantaged children

On the impact of early marriage on schooling outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa and South West Asia

This paper examines the effect of age of marriage on women's schooling outcomes for 36 countries from Sub-Saharan Africa and South West Asia. We employ an instrumental variable approach to account for the endogeneity of early marriage driven by socio-economic and cultural factors. Our results show that delaying early marriage by one year is associated with an increase of half a year of education in Sub-Saharan Africa and nearly one third of a year of education in South West Asia as well as a lower likelihood of dropping out from secondary school of 5.5% in South West Asia

Access to basic education in Ghana: the evidence and the issues

This review of educational development in Ghana has been developed to explore key issues in access to education, capture recent research, and to identify gaps in knowledge and understanding. This critical analytic review provides the basis for research which seeks to identify children who are excluded from basic education, establish the causes of their exclusion, and identify ways of ensuring that all children comnplete a full cycle of basic education successfully

Continuous assessment in post-secondary teacher training in Ghana: a case study evaluation

The importance of and preference for assessing learning outcomes using a variety of assessment techniques and containing data from many sources, rather than the sole dependence on the one-shot examination, has long been recognised worldwide. This has led to major assessment policy changes in both developed and developing countries. In Ghana, this change has led to the introduction of continuous assessment at all levels of secondary schooling and post-secondary teacher training, to operate in parallel with external examinations. Although in Ghana evaluation studies of continuous assessment have been conducted for the secondary school level, none has so far been done for the post-secondary teacher training level. The purpose of this research was therefore, to examine the nature and scope of activities and problems that have to do with the practice of continuous assessment at the postsecondary teacher training level in Ghana. The research also examined the training and guidance provided for those undertaking continuous assessment, and the impact of the new assessments upon teaching and learning. A qualitative case study was conducted in three selected training colleges from the months, February to March of 1996 and January of 1997. The selected colleges were considered to be a fair representation of the teacher training college system in Ghana. The field research also included interviews with key officials associated with the postsecondary teacher training system. Findings from the multi-site case study evidence were presented and analysed for their significance. The findings of the research suggest that, many problems continue to threaten the benefits derivable from using continuous assessment in assessing students in the training colleges. The key findings that emerged as significant includes: operational and structural conditions in the colleges, professional support systems for tutors to carry out continuous assessment, tutor competency in assessment and considerations rooted in the values and beliefs of tutors about assessment which define their assessment culture and agenda. Evidence from those findings was then used as a basis for conclusions about improving continuous assessment in post-secondary teacher training, in Ghana. Recommendations for policy implementation and potential areas for further research were also made

Continuous assessment in post-secondary teacher training in Ghana: a case study evaluation

The importance of and preference for assessing learning outcomes using a variety of assessment techniques and containing data from many sources, rather than the sole dependence on the one-shot examination, has long been recognised worldwide. This has led to major assessment policy changes in both developed and developing countries. In Ghana, this change has led to the introduction of continuous assessment at all levels of secondary schooling and post-secondary teacher training, to operate in parallel with external examinations. Although in Ghana evaluation studies of continuous assessment have been conducted for the secondary school level, none has so far been done for the post-secondary teacher training level. The purpose of this research was therefore, to examine the nature and scope of activities and problems that have to do with the practice of continuous assessment at the postsecondary teacher training level in Ghana. The research also examined the training and guidance provided for those undertaking continuous assessment, and the impact of the new assessments upon teaching and learning. A qualitative case study was conducted in three selected training colleges from the months, February to March of 1996 and January of 1997. The selected colleges were considered to be a fair representation of the teacher training college system in Ghana. The field research also included interviews with key officials associated with the postsecondary teacher training system. Findings from the multi-site case study evidence were presented and analysed for their significance. The findings of the research suggest that, many problems continue to threaten the benefits derivable from using continuous assessment in assessing students in the training colleges. The key findings that emerged as significant includes: operational and structural conditions in the colleges, professional support systems for tutors to carry out continuous assessment, tutor competency in assessment and considerations rooted in the values and beliefs of tutors about assessment which define their assessment culture and agenda. Evidence from those findings was then used as a basis for conclusions about improving continuous assessment in post-secondary teacher training, in Ghana. Recommendations for policy implementation and potential areas for further research were also made

Research into self-help groups and speed school graduates' experiences of schooling

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