Ensuring all children learn to read and do math in Ghana
Ghana is facing one of the worst learning crises in Sub-Saharan Africa. While there is some recent encouraging progress in educational access, almost 80% of children still do not acquire basic skills in literacy and numeracy by the time they reach the end of primary school.
One of the key priorities of the International Parliamentary Network for Education (IPNEd) is to work with parliamentarians to grow political understanding of and commitment to using evidence-based measures to improve foundational literacy and numeracy skills in Sub-Saharan Africa.
IPNEd convened in-country partners to the first stakeholder workshop to develop together a national advocacy strategy on foundational literacy and numeracy in Ghana.
Participants discussed effective ways to engage policymakers on the issue of learning and highlighted the strong need for collective action on improving foundational learning (FLN).
Stakeholder workshop to develop an advocacy strategy on FLN with in-country partners, March 23, Accra, Ghana.
Growing parliamentary knowledge, action and understanding of FLN in Ghana
Following the development and launch of the GEM’s Born to Learn Spotlight Report on Ghana, IPNED together with the Global Education Monitoring Report (GEMR), the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC) and School for Life agreed to work together to develop and implement a joint influencing strategy on foundational learning in Ghana.
The in-country stakeholder advocacy planning workshop on March 23 was a first opportunity for partners to come together and agree on a series of recommendations which will guide parliamentarians in advocating towards improving learning outcomes in Ghana. The key themes partners agreed to prioritize include provision of textbooks and learning materials, improved domestic financing, language of instruction and decentralization.
The organizations attending the workshop were GNECC, School for Life, GEMR, UNICEF Ghana, Luminos Fund, Action Aid Ghana, OXFAM, Right to Play and OSU Children’s Library Fund.
We were very grateful to the Chief Director of the Ministry of Education of Ghana who opened the workshop.
We were also joined by the Clerk of the Parliamentary Committee for Education who set out how civil society organizations have successfully worked with members of parliament to build cross-party understanding of an action on educational issues.
Representatives of The National Council for Curriculum Assessment in Ghana also participated in the session.
“Despite the challenges Ghana is facing in providing quality education to all children, we were extremely pleased to see the huge commitment and support we received from partners for collective action towards improving foundational learning in the country. Without urgent measures to improve foundational literacy and numeracy, Ghana will face a learning and human capital catastrophe.” said Joseph Nhan-O’Reilly, Executive Director of IPNEd.
“We were pleased to collaborate with IPNEd and in-country partners on raising the issue of foundational learning in Ghana, and we look forward to continue to working with colleagues to put foundational literacy and numeracy on the agenda of parliament and government” said Amadu Zulyaden, Advocacy and Policy Influencing Specialist at School for Life.
Accelerating learning progress will require firm political commitment and implementation of evidence-based approaches for rapid impact.
In the coming months IPNEd will launch together with partners a policy paper for parliamentarians in the Ghana Parliament on the issue of learning poverty.
