COVID-19 response
A US$15 million grant supports Ghana's COVID-19 response for continued learning, recovery and resilience for basic education.
Allocation: US$15 million
Years: 2020-2021
Grant agent: World Bank
Key documents:
The funding will support:
- Developing accessible and inclusive learning modules through TV and radio
- Distributing printed teaching and learning materials
- Distributing pre-loaded content devices to vulnerable groups who lack access to technology
- In-service teacher training to ensure teachers can effectively deliver lessons through innovative platforms
- A new learning management system to support learning continuity
- A new National Knowledge and Skills Bank to enable the curation of all education content linked to the new curriculum.
- When schools reopen, remedial and accelerated learning support for at-risk and poor performing students
- School grants to establish hand washing facilities or latrines in all schools.
The initiatives above are based on the Ministry of Education COVID-19 response plan.
In late March 2020, the UNICEF office in Ghana received a GPE grant of US$70,000 to support the Ministry of Education with planning its COVID-19 response.
Education in Ghana
The Education Strategic Plan 2018-2030 is the sixth plan in the series and builds on the previous ones and on other strategic goals such as Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education, and MDGs and is aligned to the more recent Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 and the National Development Plan 2016-2057.
The ultimate goal of the plan is to ensure that education plays a critical and positive role in the national development agenda and in helping to integrate international development goals into this agenda.
The main priorities of the ESP 2018-2030 include:
- Access and equity: Equal opportunity to obtain access to education, to learn and the provision of an environment that is conducive to learning and achievement of learning outcomes that demonstrate fair and just assessment,
- Quality: Achievement of high level standards and system responsiveness at all levels of education,
- Relevance: Learning, including skills development, which is responsive to individual, community and national development needs,
- Efficiency and effectiveness: Management of all resources that ensure value for money to achieve desired goals,
- Sustainability: Judicious utilization of human, financial and material resources to ensure balanced and continual development of the education system.
While the country has made considerable progress in the last decades, the education sector still faces several challenges which include attracting the remaining out-of-school children, poor learning outcomes in early grades, equity in access and learning, teacher time-on-task and deployment.
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This five-year program, titled Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Program (GALOP), targets 2 years of preschool and 6 years of primary school (basic education). It consists of system-level interventions of national scope and learning interventions targeting about 10,000 public basic schools (about half of the total) experiencing the greatest challenges in learning outcomes and resources.
The selection of the target schools is based on a rigorous methodology that blends learning disadvantage and poverty.
The US$24.4 million grant includes a US$9.4 million implementation grant and a US$15 million Multiplier grant, which has leveraged additional funding from the International Development Association (IDA). The originally planned additional IDA funding was US$50 million, which secured Ghana’s access to the full Multiplier Maximum Country Allocation of US$15 million. Subsequently the IDA funding was increased to US$150 million.
The program has four components:
- Strengthen teaching and learning through:
- teacher capacity building and innovative delivery of in-service training
- instructional leadership
- provision of teaching and learning materials.
- Strengthen school support and resource systems by:
- providing learning grants for learning-focused activities
- strengthening district education management capacity so they can support schools to develop, implement, and monitor performance improvement plans
- supporting school management committees for enhanced citizen engagement and capacity for accountable and transparent financial management of resources.
- Strengthen accountability by developing and implementing:
- a learning accountability framework
- a national assessment strategy
- policy reforms for efficient education sector human resource management.
- Provide technical assistance and support for institutional strengthening, monitoring, and research.
Grants
All amounts are in US dollars.
| Grant type | Years | Allocations | Utilization | Grant agent | |
| COVID-19 | 2020-2021 | 15,000,000 | 0 | WB | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Program implementation and Multiplier | 2020-2025 | 24,400,000 | 5,900,259 | WB | Progress report |
| Program implementation | 2012-2016 | 75,500,000 | 75,500,000 | WB | Completion report |
| 2009-2011 | 0 | 0 | WB | ||
| 2006-2007 | 11,000,000 | 11,000,000 | WB | Completion report | |
| 2005-2006 | 8,000,000 | 8,000,000 | WB | Completion report | |
| Sector plan development | 2017-2019 | 442,772 | 442,772 | FCDO | |
| System capacity | 2022 | 667,130 | 0 | UNICEF | |
| Program development | 2018-2019 | 383,025 | 383,025 | WB | |
| Total | 135,392,927 | 101,226,056 |
As part of its investment in civil society advocacy and social accountability efforts, GPE’s Education Out Loud fund is supporting the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC) for the 2019-2021 period.
This builds on 11 years of Civil Society Education Fund (CSEF) support to national education coalitions for their engagement in education sector policy dialogue.
GPE had provided the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC) with a grant from the CSEF to support its engagement in education sector policy dialogue and citizens’ voice in education quality, equity, and financing and sector reform.