CONCEPT PAPER ON QUALITY EDUCATION

Empowerment for Life (E4L) has a holistic approach to education in particular and to
development as a whole. By holistic, it means looking at the whole human being
(psychologically, intellectually, physically and morally). This is important when pursuing a
relevant and meaningful learning situation in life. In empowering people to improve on their
everyday life situations, E4L looks at all aspects of life and designs the curriculum
correspondingly. E4L aims to develop in the children a sense of critical thinking and pro-
activeness, which will reflect in the society at large and promote active participation in
democratic processes. From a societal perspective, E4L therefore aims at creating synergy and
relevance between the learner, the classroom, the home and the rest of the community. This is to
generate a harmonic and balanced society with mutual respect and understanding between sexes,
ethnic groups, generations and other social groups. This document describes the rationale and the
values of the major pedagogic and planning components of E4L. It is important to note that each
component is essential as part of the holistic concept and a combination of all factors that
contribute to the outstanding results that can be realized from education.

Partnerships

Organizational/Institutional Affiliations
Under E4L, School for Life works closely with the Government of Ghana, through the Ghana Education
Service (GES), and the Ministry of Education (MoE) as a partner in its efforts to ensure quality education
for all. At the District Level, School for Life works with Metropolitan, Municipal, and District
Assemblies, as well as traditional authorities and community leaders to ensure that programs are run in
partnership with communities.

School for Life operates under the Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA), an umbrella
organization. It works closely with educational stakeholders like the Northern Network for Educational
Development (NNED), a part of the larger national coalition, Ghana National Education Campaign
Coalition (GNECC), among others.

In 2010, School for Life facilitated the formation of the Complementary Basic Education (CBE) Alliance
to advocate for the Government of Ghana among other aims, to fast track the rollout of CBE across
Ghana. The aim of the CBE Alliance has been realized to some extent regarding the roll out of
Complementary Basic Education nationwide. The Ghana Complementary basic Education Programme is
currently being implemented in four Regions. So far eight NGOs/CSOs including SfL have been engaged
to implement the programme under the supervision of a Management Unit and a Steering Committee,
both of which are based in Accra. The programme is intended to reach out to other regions depending on
need in subsequent years.

Under E4L, SfL also tries to mainstream its methodology into the formal school system by organizing in-
service training programmes for lower Primary School teachers and Circuit Supervisors. This is to
reiterate the importance of the use of the mother tongue as a medium of instruction within the formative
years of the children.
Enhancing Education Quality in Deprived Areas

The quality of education in Ghana has been described as low because many children continue to
leave school without basic literacy and numeracy skills. At a debriefing session to report the outcome
on some agreed conclusions of the 55th session on the Commission on the Status of Women in
Accra recently, participants agreed that expanding access to education must be improved in
response to shifting societal demands.

”Many children have completed basic level of education, yet they lack the knowledge and skills
relevant for the competitive job market,” the report emphasized.

It acknowledged that investment in quality education should be intensified by prioritizing the

professional development of teachers, improving learning conditions and revising curricula.

Juliana Azumah-Mensah, Minister of Women and Children Affairs (MOWAC), admitted that women
still make up the majority of the world's illiterate adults. (Ghanaweb.com, November, 2013)

Community involvement and District Level supervision

The Mitchel Group, coordinated by Stephen P. Heyneman (2009), conducted a study supported by
USAID on the status of Basic Education Quality in Ghana, which came out with a report that
indicates that enrollment in basic education had made significant progress in Ghana but learning
achievements appeared to have stagnated. The report also indicated that increased frequency of
SMC meetings was not clearly associated with increased student performance in English at P6.
While students in schools that SMC met once a year had lower average achievement relative to
schools whose SMC met more frequently. Students in schools that SMC did not meet tended to have
higher scores than those in schools that SMCs met once per year, though none of these
comparisons was significant. The report also stated that it could be possible that higher performing
schools had not felt the need to organize or actively engage their SMCs. In addition, frequency of
visits by the Circuit Supervisor was not associated with variations in English achievement, although
there was not variability across schools in the reported frequencies of these visits.

Part of the Report provided by the Mitchel Group looked at community support. The report cited
North Dayi in the Volta Region of Ghana as an example, that communities lent support to schools in
two major ways: mediating disputes between teachers and community members, typically through
the SMC and providing additional funding for schools, typically through the PTA. According to the
report, in one of the case study schools a community that provided a computer centre and library
also employed an ICT teacher and paid part of the school’s electricity bill through the PTA. Again, the
SMCs planned school improvement activities and endorsed expenditures of the capitation grant. All
the schools found their SMCs helpful, although some schools would like their SMC/PTA to be able to
raise additional funds.

There are other structures like the District Education Oversight Committee (DEOC) that can be
strengthened through capacity building with regards to issues pertaining to quality education.
It is based on the above scenarios that E4L believes that working with the existing school structures
and other relevant CSOs would help to improve quality education in schools in Ghana, especially the
very poor and marginalized/deprived communities.

Approaches

The programme intends to work very closely with the District Education Directorates, Civil Society
Organizations and Communities to ensure that quality education is enhanced in the programme districts.

The following approaches will be used:

i. Use of strategic service delivery like capacity building programmes for CSOs, PTA/SMCs,
and Head Teachers’ Associations.

ii. Organizing advocacy forums and community meetings to highlight and reinforce the need for
community members to explore opportunities and relevant partnerships that they can
engage themselves in to bring about change in their communities.

iii. Research activities that can produce relevant information for advocacy work

Expected results

It is envisaged that if CSOs or groups are effectively engaged, it would offer them the chance of realizing
the need to ask for opportunities rather than sympathies. In this case, communities without schools where
SfL has exited would be able to engage well with the District Assemblies and the Ghana Education
Service to establish schools in those communities. Parents will also realize the need to demand their rights
from duty bearers regarding quality education for their wards.

Evaluation will take place in cooperation between District Education Directorates, District Assemblies
and SfL.