COVID-19 disrupted learning all over the world and in Ghana alone it affected an estimated 9.2 million students from kindergarten to senior high school in both public and private schools.

In an effort to promote learning continuity, ensure a safe reopening and strengthen the education system to deal with future crises, GPE allocated a US$15 million COVID-19 education response grant to the government of Ghana.

In parallel, GPE also allocated a $24.4 million grant to support the Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP), focused on improving the quality of education in low performing schools.

Keeping children learning

The COVID-19 emergency grant supported the government to pivot to remote learning by developing over 1,640 TV and radio lessons for kindergarten to high school and by rolling out distance learning modules to students across the country.

Edmodo - a platform for online learning that provides communication between teachers, students and parents - was also adapted to host learning materials aligned with the Ghana curriculum and was launched during the National Education Week held in November 2020.

Continuing learning for all children

While approximately 60% of children in Ghana can be reached through TV or radio, an additional 500,000 children do not have access to TV, radio or other technologies. The GPE program, therefore, supported the printing and distribution of teaching and learning materials to ensure no child was left behind.

Printed student activity books were developed and distributed to accompany the Ghana learning radio lessons.

Additionally, 3,000 tablets preloaded with educational content were developed and distributed to 28 special schools. Now, 7,070 students with disabilities can study at their own pace with these devices.

Back-to-school efforts

To support back-to-school efforts, a national back-to-school campaign was conducted over TV, radio and social media, resulting in 98% of students returning to school and resuming studies when schools reopened in January 2021.

More than 70,000 teachers in the 10,000 GALOP beneficiary schools were also trained on how to teach remedial and accelerated lessons to support at-risk and poor performing students upon returning to school.

The back-to-school campaign also targeted pregnant girls to encourage them to return to school to finish their education.

The outreach was extended to community leaders to get their support in sending the girls back to school to continue learning.