1. education

 GHANA EDUCATION FOR CHANGE THEMATIC PROGRAMME 2015-­‐2019 1 | P a g e TABLE OF CONTENT Table of Content ............................................................................................................................. 1 I. Accronyms & Abbreviations ......................................................................................................... 4 II. Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................... 6 III. Executive Summary .................................................................................................................... 7 Iv. Geographic scope of the TP including projects ............................................................................ 9 1.0 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 10 2.0 Context Analysis Update (refer to country strategy) ................................................................ 14 2.1 Ghana’s Political and Economic Situation ...................................................................................................... 14 2.2 Power Relations-­‐ Civil Society, Private Sector and State ................................................................................ 15 2.3 The Education Sector in Ghana ...................................................................................................................... 15 2.4 Local TP context and focus: the situation of Northern Ghana ....................................................................... 17 3.0 Problem Analysis ..................................................................................................................... 21 3.1 Access and Completion of Quality Basic Education ........................................................................................ 21 3.2 Youth empowerment ..................................................................................................................................... 22 3.3 Accountable policy, management and financing of quality education .......................................................... 23 4.0 Programme objectives and indicatorS ..................................................................................... 27 4.1 Education Programme Objective .................................................................................................................... 28 4.2 Annual Objectives ........................................................................................................................................... 30 5.0 Programme Strategies ............................................................................................................. 32 5.1 Education Programme Strategies and areas of intervention ......................................................................... 32 5.2 Strategic Approach to Advocacy ..................................................................................................................... 38 5.3 Strategic Approach to Partnership ................................................................................................................. 39 5.4 Gender strategy .............................................................................................................................................. 40 6.0 Communication strategy ......................................................................................................... 43 7.0 Fundraising Strategy ................................................................................................................ 44 2 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 8.0 Outline of programme activities .............................................................................................. 45 8.1 Specific Objective 1 activities ......................................................................................................................... 45 8.2 Specific Objective 2 activities ......................................................................................................................... 45 8.3 Specific Objective 3 activities ......................................................................................................................... 45 9.0 Learning, integrated monitoring and evaluation ...................................................................... 47 9.1 What to monitor? ........................................................................................................................................... 47 9.2 How to Monitor?: Levels and outputs ............................................................................................................ 47 9.3 Learning .......................................................................................................................................................... 47 9.4 Benchmarking for monitoring and evaluation-­‐Baseline Survey ..................................................................... 48 9.5 End of Programme Evaluation ........................................................................................................................ 48 10. Programme and Human Resource Management .................................................................... 49 11. Assumptions and risks ............................................................................................................. 51 11.1 TP RISK EVALUATION AND MANAGEMENT PLAN ........................................................................................ 52 12. Budget and Budget Comments ................................................................................................ 55 13. Annexes .................................................................................................................................. 55 ANNEX 1: TP ORGANOGRAM 2015-­‐2019 ............................................................................................................. 56 ANNEX 2: TP + FUNDRAISED PROJECTS ................................................................................................................ 57 ANNEX 3: PROPOSED TP PARTNERS AND COLLABORATORS ................................................................................ 58 3 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 I. ACCRONYMS & ABBREVIATION
4 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 ACE = Alliance for Change in Education AfDB = African Development Bank ANCEFA = Africa Network Cooperation on Education for All BE = basic education BEQUIP = Basic Education Quality Improvement Programme CBE = Complementary Basic Education CO = Country Office CoE = college of education CRDD = Curriculum Research and Development Division CSO = civil society organization CWT = Core Writing Team DA = District Assembly DCAF = District Assembly Common Fund DCE = District Chief Executive DED = District Education Directorate DEO = District Education Office DFID = United Kingdom Department For International Development DLF = Danish Teachers’ Union (Danish: Danmarks Lærerforening) DMDTP = District Medium-­‐Term Development Plan DTST = District Teacher Support Team EAPI = Education Against Poverty and Inequality EfA = Education for All EfC = Education for Change EfE = Education for Empowerment EMIS = Education Management Information System ESWG = Education Sector Working Group ESPR = Education Sector Performance Report FMM = Formative Monitoring Mission GDHS = Ghana Demographic and Health Survey GDP = Gross Domestic Product GER = Gross Enrolment Rate GES = Ghana Education Service GETFUND = Ghana Education Trust Fund GNECC = Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition GNI = Gross National Income GoG = Government of Ghana GPEG = Global Partnership for Education Grant GPI = gender parity index GSFP = Ghana School Feeding Programme GSGDA = Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda 5 | P a g e GSS = Ghana Statistical Service HO = Head Office ICT = information and communication technology IGF = internally generated funds INSET = in-­‐service training JHS = junior high school (f.ex. JHS1 = JHS, form 1) JICA = Japan International Cooperation Agency KG = kindergarten KL = Association of Danish Municipalities. LCTM = learner-­‐centred teaching methodologies LMIC = Lower-­‐Middle Income Country MMDA = Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies MoE = Ministry of Education MP = Member of Parliament NDAP = National Decentralization Action Plan NDC = National De NEA = National Education Assessment NER = net enrolment rate NNED= Northern Network for Education Development NPP = National Patriotic Party NYA = National Youth Authority NYP = National Youth Policy P = primary school (f.ex. P1 = primary school, grade 1) PDP = partnership development plan PMT = performance monitoring test PO = Programme Office PRESET = pre-­‐service training PTA = Parent Teacher Association PTDPM = Pre-­‐Tertiary Professional Development and Management (PTDPM) Policy RTI = Right to Information (RTI) Bill SHS = senior high school (f.ex. SHS1 = SHS, form 1) SMC = School Management Committee SPAM = School Performance Appraisal Meeting SPIP = School Performance Improvement Plan SRHR = sexual and reproductive health and rights STK = Sawla-­‐Tuna-­‐Kalba District TLM = teaching and learning material TP = thematic programme TVSD = Technical and Vocational Skills Development UNDP = United Nations Development Programme USAID = United States Agency for International Development WB = World Bank
II. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This programme document is the result of tireless efforts by several individuals and institutions, which must be acknowledged. My sincere gratitude goes to the partners and the Education Team of IBIS in Ghana, especially the Core Writing Team led by Eric Kavaarpuo, who spent several man hours and sleepless nights to work with comments received from IBIS Head Office and Country Office. The HO Education Team under the leadership of Sanne Müller also deserves commendation for their critical comments and input. Further, I am also grateful to the Ghana Country Office Team under the able leadership of the Country Director, Tijani Ahmed Hamza, and Patricia Richter (Head of Finance and Administration) for their invaluable input. Finally, my gratitude goes to Stephen Adu (Director of Basic Education, GES Headquarters), Eunice Yaa Brimfah Ackwerh (Senior Education Specialist, World Bank) and Richard Adzei (USAID Ghana) for finding time to provide IBIS with ideas to enrich the content of this programme document. Prosper Kwasi Nyavor (Education Programme Director) 6 | P a g e III. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Country and Sector Programme Title Relevance Objectives Target groups Main results 7 | P a g e Ghana, Education Education for Change This TP is in synchrony with the IBIS Ghana country strategy and the IBIS Global Education for Change strategy, organized around promoting quality education, and ensuring good governance and accountability within the education sector. Development Objective Civil society organisations and constituents are strengthened and actively influencing Education policy reform, implementation and financing, and the Government of Ghana delivers on the right to free quality education for marginalised children, youth and adults. Specific objectives 1. Marginalised children, with focus on girls, are increasingly accessing and completing quality basic education. 2. Marginalised youth, with focus on young women asserting their right to education especially skills development programmes and to participate and influence decision making as active citizens. 3. CSOs are actively demanding equitable, transparent and accountable management and financing of education resources and pro-­‐poor policies for quality education in Ghana. This TP responds to two sets of target groups, the intermediate target group and the ultimate target group. The programme partners, and also the collaborators are the intermediate target group, as they are the direct beneficiaries of IBIS technical and financial support. The ultimate target group consists of pupils, in and out of school children, youth, teachers and head teachers in the four TP districts in the Northern Region and two in the Western region. • Improved literacy and numeracy skills of primary school pupils • Increased access to quality free, basic education • Improved gender equality in basic educational performance • Strengthened local education management • Increased influence of youth groups. • Improved sexual and reproductive health rights awareness among youth. • Strengthened capacities of partner CSOs on youth issues. • Adequate central government financing of quality basic education. • Improved pro-­‐poor policy for basic education place in Ghana. • Improved local government accountability and transparency in utilisation of education resources. • Capacities of partner CSOs strengthened to enhance their capacity to Assumptions •
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•
•
•
•
•
influence education policy and budget issues. Government revenues will remain stable and will not impact negatively
on education budget allocation and spending;
National political priorities will remain stable, and committed to propoor education interventions;
IBIS membership of Oxfam will not have any adverse effect on the
design and implementation of the TP;
Ebola will not spread to Ghana;
There will be political stability before, during and after 2016 general
elections in Ghana;
The programme districts will remain peaceful /devoid of conflicts
Local political leadership will be committed to and interested in
education co-operation
Reference to TP Risk management plan Partner SEND, IMANI, NNED, GNECC, CALID, NORSAAC, Choice-­‐Ghana, EGOCSA, organizations Link Community Development, GILLBT, Savana Signatures and FOSDA Collaborating GES, National Youth Authority, Colleges of Education, INGOs, ActionAid, organizations VSO Amount applied for 25.033.614 DKK = 3.360.217 Euro (rate 7,45) 8 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 IV. GEOGRAPHIC SCOPE OF THE TP INCLUDING PROJECTS 9 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 1.0 INTRODUCTION The overall focus of this Education Thematic Programme (TP) is to support civil society organisations (CSOs) to actively advocate for equitable education policies and practices; increased financing of education, transparent and accountable management of education resources at local and national levels, and at global level. The TP seeks to do this working in partnership with local and national civil society to influence education policy and practice in Ghana and globally, also working with the Education Against Poverty and Inequality Programme (EAPI). The TP also aims at influencing education policy nationally with evidences that will be generated in 3 focal districts (Sawla, Kpandai and Sagnarigu) and 5 others (Bole, East Gonja, Saboba, Bibiani and Sefwi Wiawso) where fundraised projects (Toms, Christmas Calendar, Hempel, Edukans, Complementary Basic Education/DFID are being implemented. Being the third successive and possibly the last DANIDA funded Education TP of IBIS in Ghana, the design of this phase is anchored on the solid results, evidence, lessons learned and experiences accumulated from implementing the 2 previous TPs (the Education for Empowerment (EfE 1 and II) from 2004-­‐2009 and 2010-­‐2014 respectively and other fundraised projects over the years. These TPs and projects were designed to create the requisite spaces for IBIS and civil society partners to innovate, test models and use as evidence to influence direct educational change at local and national levels. The results and changes from the two TPs have been documented and the evidences/tools thereof are basis for campaigning and advocating favourable policy reforms to promote the fulfilment of the right to quality universal basic education in Ghana. The second TP also extended beyond Ghana to Burkina Faso where IBIS and BØRNEfonden jointly designed and implemented the Projet d’Amélioration de la Qualité de l’Enseignement (PAQUE) (2010-­‐2013). This project sought to improve the quality of teaching and learning in basic schools in 4 Provinces in Burkina Faso, and to support and strengthen the national EfA coalition of Burkina Faso (EPT). 1.1 Main lessons-­‐learned from EfE I and EfE II Key lessons-­‐learnt from previous TPs and projects as documented in Formative Monitoring Missions (2011, 2013) and final TP evaluations (2009, 2014): 1. It is important that all models being developed or adopted by the new TP have features and qualities of equity, replicability and sustainability, and demonstrate evidence of impact in terms of learning outcomes, gender equity/equality and active participation; otherwise their value as models for advocacy would be severely compromised. Although, the models developed under the previous TPs had some of the above attributes/qualities, more work is needed to package them for effective advocacy. The new TP will work with CSOs to explore government delivery of Wing Schools, Model Girls’ Schools, Girls’ Clubs, and how these can be mainstreamed within the public education system and managed by Ghana Education Service (GES) at district level, supported by District Assemblies (DAs). This will include provision of information on costs, selection and location, and contextual conditions required to achieve impact. For instance no new Model Girls’ schools will be established under the new TP; rather, on-­‐going documentation of results, cost and processes (how to) 10 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 of existing models will be improved and used for advocacy for its replication in selected deprived districts to enable more girls complete, pass their basic education examinations and enrol in senior high schools.. Technical support will however be provided DAs and GES who decide to replicate these models in their districts. The level of involvement of IBIS staff in development of the various models under the previous TPs was very significant and did not allow for sufficient space for GES and the local CSOs to learn by doing. Consequently, the capacity of some of these partners and collaborators was not strengthened enough to independently replicate the models. As indicated above, this weakness will be addressed in the new TP. 2. For interventions such as the Alliance for Change in Education (ACE) Wing School model, there is continuous need for further moving up advocacy at national level to get state commitment and further resource allocation for local level replication efforts, targeting poverty reduction for poor and marginalised people. The Danish Local Government Service’s (KL) capacity assessments of Gushegu and Karaga districts, where the ACE project was implemented, revealed that national finances and the actual allocation of these to local level have implications for the sustainability of district level interventions. The ACE project did not anticipate national level financing challenges and therefore did not systematically integrate this in the project design. This has had consequences sustaining gains of the ACE Wing School intervention with total DA commitment. In this TP, this weakness will be addressed with a strategy of supporting CSOs to track and analyse education resources, budgets, spending etc, at all levels and use the evidence for advocacy and campaigns for state action. Also, the TP will work closely with the Governance programme of IBIS in Ghana to promote CSO advocacy for increased education financing from tax revenues of the extractive sector. Also, it will collaborate with IBIS Global Education Against Poverty and Inequality Programme (EAPI) in providing evidence to regional advocacy within this area at the same time tapping on EAPI’s links and experiences from advocacy for increased education financing at regional and global levels. 3. The key lesson learnt in implementing the PAQUE project in Burkina Faso was that inadequate financing is usually not the main cause of ineffectiveness of education networks/coalitions, but rather clear vision, advocacy strategy and vibrant leadership. It was striking to note the similarities in the challenges that were adversely affecting the national education coalitions in Ghana and Burkina Faso. These include; inadequate capacity in policy advocacy; absence of a clearly written advocacy strategy and plan; failure of the members to pay the agreed membership dues, to mention just a few. These lessons learned will be used in the further cooperation in Ghana with Northern Network of Education Development (NNED) and the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC). 4. The TP intervention districts to pilot innovations would be based on a demand-­‐
driven approach, where districts buy-­‐into intervention ideas and actually adapt to suit their local conditions. A genuine determination to succeed is one sure way to learn from experience. The political leadership of Gushegu and Karaga districts did not appear to have demonstrated determination to succeed during implementation 11 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 of the ACE and beyond. The two districts particularly failed to sustain the upkeep of community teachers who agreed to live and teach in hard-­‐to-­‐reach communities when the ACE project ended in 2013. This view stands in spite of challenges with financial transfers from central government to those districts. This kind of weakness has also been experienced in Bole and East Gonja districts where the TP has been implemented for a decade. Based on this learning, this TP will phase-­‐out of East Gonja and Bole. The Hempel project in Saboba district will however continue to receive support based on the good will and exemplary leadership by district authorities. The main districts that are being targeted for further development of innovative models of good practice include Kpandai, Sawla-­‐Tuna-­‐Kalba (STK) and Sagnarigu (a district carved out of then Tamale Metropolis). The decision to work in Sagnarigu is to enable the Education Programme test some of its models in the context of a deprived peri-­‐urban area where the Governance TP is already working. The 2 TPs will work with common partners such as NORSAAC and CALID to tackle issues such as poor learning outcomes and to mobilise and strengthen youth groups to promote full and equal rights of youth at community, district and national levels. This will provide an opportunity for deepening synergy between the two TPs (Education and Governance). STK and Kpandai represents districts, where the leadership of GES and DA have demonstrated good will, systematically adopting some TP models (Girls clubs, Girls Junior High School, Learner-­‐Centred Teaching etc) and replicating/scaling-­‐up using their own internal resources. The next phase of the TP will be used to package the results achieved so far in these districts and other districts for policy advocacy. Furthermore, the TP will lift its advocacy beyond district to national level by working with EAPI to model a practice of earmarked funding (based on specific benchmarks established with education stakeholders) for basic education at local and national level with the view to influencing the formulation of a policy on financing basic education in Ghana. The evidence of this model and the good practice thereof will be used to contribute to regional and global policy development and South-­‐South learning. 5. The assumption by EfE II that training District Teacher Support Teams (DTSTs) will eventually result in knowledge transfer to classroom teachers has proven to be unrealistic. The DTSTs have not been able to do this due to several factors such as poor leadership at the District Education Directorates (DEDs), inadequate funds from central government to cascade training, lack of commitment on the part of the DTSTs and infrequent follow-­‐up facilitation by TP staff to support/energize them to function. Also, the current practice of organizing 5-­‐day training of trainers (ToT) on participatory teaching methods has proven to be inadequate in building the capacity of the trainers/DTSTs in carrying out further quality training for classroom teachers. The duration of the ToT ought to be extended (follow-­‐up, supervision, refresher and content is also important) to improve upon the competency of the trainers/DTSTs. The next phase of the TP will build on the foundation that has been laid by the current Basic Education Quality Improvement Program (BEQUIP), where emphasis is placed on strengthening institutional capacity through tutors of Colleges of Education/ teacher training colleges to enable them apply empowering pedagogical practices that promote active learning. This is aimed at influencing the mode of teacher training so as to improve quality basic education in the country. 12 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 6. The civil society organisations whose original focus was not to advocate for change in the education sector cannot be relied upon to harness the energy and support of citizenry to advocate and demand for quality education. For example, partner organisations such as PAPADEV and SCAN have not demonstrated the ability to mobilise the people in their communities/districts to advocate for any change in the education sector. The 2013 FMM recommended that the TP looks for partners with specific technical expertise in education or with appropriate advocacy experience. In line with this, the new TP intends to work with SEND Ghana, IMANI, FOSDA (on youth empowerment), GILLBT and Savana Signatures which has been very effective in recent years in tracking resources in the health and education sectors. SEND, for example, has developed a new 5-­‐year strategic plan which has two strands of gender and social budget tracking (with emphasis on education and health). The Governance TP is already working with this organisation, and presents an opportunity for the two TPs to work together to enhance programme results in an efficient manner. 1.2 The Process of Designing this TP The programme development process was participatory -­‐ working with colleagues within IBIS, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), NGO partners, peer international NGOs (INGOs), Development Partners collaborating public institutions including the Ministry of Education (MOE), Ghana Education Service (GES) and District Assemblies (DAs). Naturally, the design of the TP was inspired by EfE staff and partner’ experiences during the implementation of the first and second TPs as well as recommendations from past FMMs, projects and the final evaluation of the programme in early 2014. A summary of the process is as follows: • Meeting of core writing team (CWT) to discuss TP writing modalities; • Meeting of core staff to brainstorm and set stage for further consultation. • Online survey with staff and partners/collaborators to align individual priorities with global strategy and step down to new TP. • Discussions, involvement and consultations with possible and future civil society partners. Firstly, IBIS staff has met with them at the various districts, secondly they have also been invited to consultative meeting in the northern regional capital –Tamale. • Consultations with major donors-­‐WB, USAID, Unicef etc. • District level consultations with mainly state collaborators. • Meeting of core staff + writing team to brainstorm and develop programme objectives etc. • The Core Writing Team (CWT) develops TP draft zero and share with partners and HO for comments. • Two day meeting with the new country Director to discuss and get his input into the process. • Comments received, analysed for writing draft 1; and comments thereof informed final stages of drafting. 13 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 2.0 CONTEXT ANALYSIS UPDATE (REFER TO COUNTRY STRATEGY) 2.1 Ghana’s Political and Economic Situation Ghana has made significant progress in its 22 years of democratic dispensation, but is yet to achieve democratic consolidation. National elections continue to be characterised by political tension, allegation and counter allegation of near violence or actual violence. This implies that political stability in Ghana is inevitably an important precondition for Ghana’s development and a risk factor in development planning and management. Ghana’s Lower Middle Income Country (LMIC) status (since November 2010) resulted in reduced access to very soft and long-­‐term aid flows. It is therefore increasingly becoming difficult for Ghana to attract concessional financing from multilateral donors and this implies greater efforts at looking internally for financing development. Consequently, the World Bank (WB) and African Development Bank (AfDB) have varied credit terms to Ghana. 2.1.1 Civil Society in Ghana Civil society capacity to influence Ghana’s LMIC status and the implications thereof, places significant responsibility on civil society. Reduced government dependence on foreign aid means increased domestic revenues and exclusive internal financing for development, and therefore extra vigilance by CSOs, of holding government accountable for prudent management of resources. Again increasing revenues from oil production in Ghana has the tendency to strain political institutions and reduce accountability incentives. Civil society role in Ghana is thus well cut-­‐out, but unfortunately CSO’s (including education-­‐focused ones) capacity to hold government institutions accountable remains weak. There are also few intermediary support organizations, coordination platforms, or local grant making organizations in the country such as the likes of Strengthening Transparency, Accountability and Responsiveness in Ghana (STAR-­‐Ghana). Due to competition for funding, USAID (2013) reports that CSO coalitions (including education umbrella organisations like 1GNECC and NNED) tend to not share information among their members, leading to duplication of efforts and minimal impact. Even though USAID sustainability index (2013) ranks CSOs in Ghana slightly higher than that of the Sub-­‐
Saharan average, CIVICUS Civil Society Index (2014) identifies three major weaknesses of CSOs in Ghana: 1) CSOs compete with one another rather than cooperate among themselves; 2) they are donor dependent and therefore are not financially sustainable; and 3) they suffer low staff capacity and therefore weak at advocacy. The evidence of this weak position is that CSOs in Ghana demonstrate limited ability to build social capital, trust and shared values to hold citizens together at district and national levels; they lack information to influence citizen choices; and lack capacity to hold their local governments accountable. With an urgent need for high CSO momentum to hold public institutions accountable, questions remain about the efficacy of Ghana’s civil society. 1 GNECC is Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition and NNED is Northern Network for Education Development 14 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 2.2 Power Relations-­‐ Civil Society, Private Sector and State The power and interest of state is devolved to local levels under the Local Government Act, 1993 (Act 462) and empowers Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) as independent entities in the exercise of political and administrative authority and power. MMDAs thus have immense power over the interests and operations of civil society and private sector. But unlike the private sector which is subject to tax revenue agencies in view of their profit motive, civil society organisations are directly subject to the developmental agendas of MMDAs and could indeed be opposed to their interest, except they operate recourse to the District Medium Term Development Plans of MMDAs and are seen to be cooperating and contributing to these plans. This relationship could limit civil society influence at district level but the opportunity is that when CSO work coincides with the wider public interest of transparent and accountable management of public resources, they tend to be insulated from the wrath of MMDAs, and similarly at national level. 2.3 The Education Sector in Ghana Education policy in Ghana has undergone reforms in the past few years. The Education Act, 2008 (Act 778) introduced 2-­‐years pre-­‐school (KG) to primary education and new mechanisms for improving education management in general. The Ghana Education Service Act, 1995 (Act 506) and Education Act, 2008 (Act 778) have been reviewed and a consolidated law merging the two Acts is anticipated. After a national referendum on Ghana’s constitutional review (which should have taken place in October 2014), the new Education Act will be part of a new Local Government Bill that is meant to resolve the several but conflictual legislations on decentralization in Ghana. The Education Act, 2008 (Act 778) established 2three new bodies to support decentralised management of quality pre-­‐tertiary education. The three bodies are the National Inspectorate Board (NIB); the National Council on Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) and the National Teaching Council (NTC). The three agencies would advance Ghana’s ESP, (2010-­‐2020) management goal to “improve planning and management in the delivery of education...”
The NIB provides external supervision to district education offices to deal with longstanding challenges with teachers’ effective use of instructional time, achieve effective deployment and distribution of teachers and ensure efficient allocation and utilization of school resources. The NIB has recently contributed to savings on salaries based on a new GES policy of no salary for unjustifiable absence from school/work where in 2013 (2,913 teachers) not at post had their names deleted from the pay roll. The Integrated Personnel Pay roll Database (IPPD) Monitoring Team was set up in 2013 and working in consultation with District Directors of Education are able to deduct days of teachers’ absence from work or delete their names entirely from the pay roll for complete vacation of post based on school monitoring. If this practice continues and further strengthened, education delivery in Ghana would be much more efficient. The mandate of the NCCA is to provide sound basis for establishing, measuring and improving upon curriculum development and guidance for pre-­‐tertiary education in 2 The NIB, NCCA and NTC are provisions of the new Education Act, 2008 (Act 778) but a status of their functionality is provided by Aide Memoires of the ESPR 2012, 2013 and 2014 which set priorities areas for urgent attention by the MoE, GES and education collaborators and partners. 15 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 Ghana. In relation to learning outcomes a definite language policy is being developed to address the current ambiguity about the use of local language at the lower primary level of schooling (including KG). The Curriculum Research and Development Division (CRDD) which works under the NCCA has produced a draft-­‐integrated teachers’ guide in nine (9) languages. However the formal re-­‐introduction of 3L1 teaching in schools ought to go beyond the 9 existing local languages to cover languages of deprived and marginalised communities whose children urgently require instruction in their mother tongue to engender interest and support for schooling. Following the five-­‐year (2008-­‐
2013) textbook supply lag in basic schools, the NCCA is leading enforcement of a textbook replacement policy. Internal auditors of GES are reportedly monitoring textbook distribution and reporting class-­‐by-­‐class deficits in supply to the Ministry of Education (MoE) to guide procurement of textbooks and workbooks for school children based on recommendations of the auditors. The NCCA has further introduced a national standardised test to be taken by all pupils across Ghana on the third term of every academic year. A pilot of the test will be done at district level for P3, P6 and JHS 2. The NTC is responsible for advising the Ministry of Education (MoE) on the content of teacher education, licensing and registration, and their professional development. The NTC will also lead implementation of the Pre-­‐Tertiary Teacher Professional Development and Management (PTPDM) policy, developed to curtail promotions and appointments in GES currently based mainly on rank and long service and not on managerial competence. Such practices account for weak management capacity of GES, particularly at the district level. A College of Education Act has been passed and a technical committee constituted by the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) to oversee the transition of existing colleges of education to tertiary status. This is meant to improve upon delivery of teacher training. Government is additionally setting up 10 new colleges of education across Ghana to guarantee continuous supply of qualified teachers at all levels. Education financing has been inadequate in the last three years. The shortfalls in domestic revenue due to weak tax performance of all types except for corporate tax from oil companies and the Communication Service Tax (Talk Tax) is undoubtedly the reason for huge national budget deficits in the last couple of years.4 This accounts for continuous arrears of statutory financial transfers from central to local government. District Education offices have barely received salaries to survive in the last two years but hardly received any funds for executing their administrative and management mandate of implementing education policy at the local level. Besides funding from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) for non-­‐salary expenditure support of US$75.5million to 75 deprived districts since 2013, the Ghana Education Service (GES) has been starved of the needed funds to undertake monitoring and supervision of schools. The GPE has sustained GES in 2013 and 2014, allocating an average of GHS 250,000 a year to each deprived district. Equally, the main source of financing District Assembly plans, the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF), has consistently been in arrears since 2012. This trend of inconsistent financial inflows from central to local 3 L1 refers to mother tongue-­‐ one’s first language 4
Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (2014)
16 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 government has constricted local development and virtually crippled the execution of planned development interventions. Access to schooling has been accelerated in the last ten years across all districts in Ghana by virtue of introducing varied social interventions -­‐ school feeding, capitation grant, uniforms, exercise books etc. The effect has been that nationally, 5Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) is (90.8%) at Kindergarten; (89.3%) at primary and (49.2%) at Junior High School (JHS). The low NER (49.2%) at JHS however suggests fewer children enrolling in school at their right ages and until NER is improved at JHS level, about half of Ghana’s school age children would remain either out of the formal school system or as school dropouts6. It was to further accelerate access to basic education for out-­‐of-­‐school children in deprived areas that the Complementary Basic Education (CBE) policy was drafted to complement the ESP (2010-­‐2020) objectives of access, equity and welfare. However besides 7DFID’s initiative of funding the CBE policy targeting 8-­‐14 year old out-­‐of-­‐school children in deprived areas, government of Ghana’s commitment to the CBE programme is yet to be felt. 8Gender parity refers to equal enrolment ratio of girls and boys and is indeed the first step towards achieving EFA goal 5. In spite of missing the 2005 target for achieving gender parity, Ghana has since made some progress. 9Gender parity was slightly surpassed at the KG level (1.01), indicative of more girls than boys enrolling at the KG level but gender parity declined at primary (0.99) and JHS (0.95) in 2013/2014, confirming that GPI declines at higher levels of schooling. By comparison, Gender Parity is worst in deprived districts where parity is (0.99) at KG, (0.94) at primary and (0.88) at JHS level in 2013/2014. The above suggests that Ghanaian girls are entitled by right to basic education, but in practice (based on the GPI evidence), girls have fewer opportunities. 10 There are further disparities between deprived and endowed urban districts and between the deprived North and the rest of Ghana. 2.4 Local TP context and focus: the situation of Northern Ghana Poverty remains rife in the three regions of the North and without the right of access to free quality basic education for poor and marginalised people, only the rich will have access to the best of education, and Ghana will gradually drift into a class society of the haves and have-­‐nots. Ghana is said to have halved poverty by 2010 owing to efforts at reducing poverty and inequality, but 11there are still 6.7 million (26.8%) poor Ghanaians, majority of whom are distributed in six out of the ten regions of Ghana. The poorest regions are the three regions of the North (Upper West, Upper East, and 5 Ministry of Education, draft Education Sector Performance Report (2014) 6 Ministry of Education, Draft Education Sector Performance Report (2014) 7 DFID decided to fund replication of the School for Life (SfL) functional Literacy model which targets out-­‐of-­‐school children within 8-­‐14 age category. The IBIS Education TP had adopted the SfL model and applied it in the Sawla-­‐
Tuna-­‐Kalba and Bole districts since 2005. Working with CSO partners-­‐PAPADEV, EGOCSA and Choice-­‐Ghana-­‐ the TP is using the opportunity of DFID funding since 2013 to continue to mop-­‐up out-­‐of-­‐school children in Kpandai, East Gonja, Bole and STK districts. 8
EFA Global Monitoring Report (2013/14)
9
Ibid (MoE, 2014)
10
Improving Equity, Efficiency and Accountability of Education Service Delivery (WB, 2011)
11 Ghana Statistical Service (GSS, 2013) Ghana Living Standards Survey No. 6 17 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 Northern Region), plus Central Region, Western Region and Volta Region. These poor regions are characterised by out-­‐of-­‐school children, school dropouts, child labour and children in hazardous work who lack the opportunities for breaking the poverty cycle. For young people (including school-­‐age children) from particularly Northern Ghana, migration to the south and or urban centres is a coping strategy to escape poverty. In the context of low incomes, migration presents an exclusive opportunity for many children to accumulate savings with a particular objective in mind-­‐ including obtaining cash to pay school fees and acquiring cooking utensils for marriage in the case of young rural women. But the aspirations of these young migrants often fizzle out because of the difficulties they face in the south. In the Northern region where the Education TP has been focusing, 12Net Enrolment Ratios are (64.3%) at KG, (89.2%) at primary and (43.9%) at JHS, indicating NER rates lower than national averages indicated above, across the Northern region. The Northern region also records gender parity trends of (0.98) at KG, (0.91) at primary and (0.84) at JHS, all below national deprived district averages and signal dire challenges to access, retention and completion of school by girls. In view of inequitable provision and deployment of school inputs and resources (infrastructure, teachers, textbooks, chalk, class registers etc) from national to local levels, deprived districts continue to be at the receiving end. For instance Kpandai district recorded one of the highest pupil-­‐trained teacher ratio (PTTR) of (136:1, 2014) compared to the regional average of 40:1. 13Arabic/Qur’anic instructions take a significant proportion of instructional time in some Islamic schools, and that in addition to poorly trained teachers or the lack of teachers, inadequate learning materials and infrastructural challenges affected access, retention and quality of learning outcomes in those schools. There are also still communities in the 6 TP districts without any schools at all and therefore access remains out of the reach of the very poor and marginalised who live in the remotest parts of the districts and the country. Adequate child-­‐friendly school infrastructure is indispensable to quality education. In view of the regional performance trends at the Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) shown in figure 1 below, it is no surprise that most of the TP districts in the Northern Region (STK, Saboba, East Gonja, Kpandai and Sagnarigu) have consistently scored below 50% in the last few years.. 12 Northern Region Education Directorate (2014) 13
NNED and the Education Sector Working Group-­‐Northern Region, conducted a fact-­‐finding mission on teaching and learning in Islamic schools of Tamale Metropolis and Sagnarigu district. 18 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 Figure 1: Northern Region BECE performance trends Source: Northern Regional Education office, (2014) The reasons for poor performance are not far-­‐fetched. Most districts have less than 50% of their teachers qualified to teach. The quality of learning outcomes therefore remains compromised in deprived districts because, as indicated above, few children actually learn anything, compared to the numbers that enrol in school. The quality of teaching and learning largely depends on teachers’ capacity to use relevant teaching methods (learner-­‐centred, gender-­‐sensitive and participatory teaching approaches) etc but this has been the challenge of the targeted deprived districts largely because they also have to contend with unqualified teachers. Again the capacity of teachers is not only limited to how qualified they are, but also the degree to which their skills are consistently upgraded to respond to new curriculum and textbook requirements, but this again, has been a challenge for these districts. Furthermore, the professional capacity of school heads to function as the first line supervisors of teachers has been hampered by inadequate resources to train and upgrade skills and knowledge of old and newly appointed school heads. For the same reasons, circuit supervisors have not only been denied training required to equip them supervise professionally but do not have the requisite equipment (vehicles or motorbikes) and the enabling fuel to conduct effective monitoring and supervision of schools. The TP modelling of approaches to enable access and quality (Wing School, Complementary Education Programme (CEP), Teachers’ Professional Development, Affirmative Action for girls’ enrolment and retention (girls’ clubs, model school concept, girls’ camps and gender-­‐sensitive pedagogy) ) have helped to assuage the bad situation in the target districts, where models have been adopted and replicated to affect the public school system; but much more effort is required in terms of state financing and targeting of deprived areas with equitable initiatives to achieve long lasting change. There is undoubtedly a positive relationship between the quality of teaching and learning, and enrolment in schools. Therefore the high annual attrition of qualified teachers from deprived districts has affected quality of learning outcomes and by implication, enrolment and retention in school. It also appears the curriculum content itself fails to respond to the immediate reality of learners to a significant extent, coupled 19 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 with the weak approach of teachers to adapt to the context of learners. For instance when teachers do not use the mother tongue as medium of instruction in deprived communities, explaining concepts in the English language might not necessarily help the understanding of learners and this could de-­‐motivate participation in the learning process. Besides lacking the relevant textbooks and other teaching, learning materials (TLMs), there is limited guidance and counselling services (including Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR)) to school children and this particularly affects the retention and completion rates of girls. The fact that teenage pregnancy is rife among school-­‐age children in deprived districts can only be attributed to the lack of SRHR knowledge and information. The quality of leadership translated in education management at district and school levels, influences the variations in performance of deprived districts. The experience of the TP is that ensuring quality education in these districts also means value for money and implies participation by all stakeholders. But sometimes education managers in these districts are not open, transparent and accountable in their use of educational resources leading to leakages and corruption. The experience also is that when community people actively participate in the planning and implementation of educational programmes they take ownership of the process and sustain it. For instance when parents get to know their rights and obligations of running a school, they are motivated to support the school. This has been experienced with implementing Wing Schools and the role played by communities. Therefore when the use of educational resources is not transparent and accountable and show results, then stakeholders tend to lose confidence in the school system. Low citizen participation (especially of parents) in the management of many schools has led to low demand side accountability and little support for schools in communities of especially deprived districts. Again many citizens (young and old) do not know their rights and responsibilities regarding education management. Even though leadership of some of the districts in the TP development process believe that education cannot be left to chance; it must be handled by trained, qualified people14, some of the leaders have either not demonstrated good leadership of ensuring open, transparent, accountable and supportive leadership, or have tended to stifle good initiatives meant for the public good. This has been experienced with particularly the political leadership of some districts. 14 A statement attributed to the Sawla-­‐Tuna-­‐Kalba District Education Directorate during TP development consultation 20 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 3.0 PROBLEM ANALYSIS 3.1 Access and Completion of Quality Basic Education The poor quality of learning outcomes is a major problem with Ghana’s education. The Early Grade Reading and Mathematics (EGRA/EGMA, 2013) assessment revealed that only 2% of grade 2 pupils in Ghana could read with fluency and comprehension, and the 15National Education Assessment (NEA, 2013) for primary 3 and 6 pupils in literacy and numeracy similarly revealed performance below the minimum competency (35% score) and proficiency levels (55% score). Trends in literacy show (20%) proficiency in literacy in 2009, (24.2%) in 2011 and (28.4%) in 2013 at primary 3. At primary 6 there were improvements from (35.6%) in 2009 to (39%) in 2013, but insufficient to meet the MoE target of 60-­‐62% achievement levels for children enrolled at the basic level. There are observed differences in learning outcomes between rural and urban schools and between schools in the South of Ghana and those in the North. The performance variations are reflective of the 16distribution of educational inputs (e.g textbooks, qualified teachers etc) by region and by urban-­‐rural status. For instance the three regions of the North (Northern Region, Upper West and Upper East) had their school pupils score the lowest in the NEA results. Whereas the national average proficiency level in Literacy (English) at P3 was 28.4% (2013) -­‐ for the three regions of the North it was 12%; for scores in mathematics the national average was 22.1% whilst that for the North was 10% at P3. At primary 6 the national average proficiency in Literacy was 39% compared with 21% in the North; and for mathematics the national was 10.9% but that for the North was 4.9%. These performance disparities only show comparisons across wide geographic regions but could be worse when specific district and school deprivations are further analysed. The disparities and inequality of access, quality and achievement further compounds the problem of Ghana’s education. 17Children are more likely to complete primary school if they enter at the right age but as noted above some children still do not have access to any schooling opportunities in deprived areas, let alone enrol at their right ages. The World Bank (2014) estimates that there are 300,000-­‐800,000 children who remain out of school in Ghana. There is also an average annual dropout rate of 184.8% at basic school level. Among the causes of unequal access, poor quality and achievement in school are the centrally controlled education management decisions, and also specific concerns of unequal teacher deployment, weak supervision and weak transparency and accountability mechanisms for safeguarding efficient and effective use of education 15
The NEA is a biennial nationally and regionally representative measure of pupil competency and proficiency in literacy
and numeracy at primary 3 and 6.
16
World Bank study (2014)
17
EFA Global Monitoring Report (2013/14)
18
The Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS) report, 2009
21 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 resources; inconsistent supply of 19textbooks and supplementary learning materials. The World Bank (WB) particularly refers to “three of the greatest inefficiencies in the current Ghanaian school system”20 as – 1) inefficient allocation of qualified teachers, 2) teacher absenteeism and 3) loss of instructional time during school day, all situated within education management. The work of previous Education TPs in Ghana confirms these causes and further reveals poor management of education delivery at district level. These management lapses manifest in poor attitudes and even abuse of power by some District Education Office staff (including circuit supervisors) in dealing with school community people. The effects of these problems include the fact that about half of children who enrol in schools in the proposed districts are unable to progress to higher levels, and a significant number who complete are eventually unable to live meaningful lives and contribute to national development. The total effect is that a significant number of children, who eventually transition into the youth category with some education or without education at all, are stranded in life. Research points to geography combined with gender as the strongest determinant of non-­‐participation in basic education, but this is also closely related to income levels. Therefore in order to improve education sector performance and increase equitable access to quality basic education, those geographic and socio-­‐economic groups who for one reason or the other are associated with low performance, high dropouts from school, low learning results etc must be identified and assigned available resources to address the real and or potential disparities. 3.2 Youth empowerment Ghana’s youthful population aged between 2115 and 24 years of age is estimated at 24.1% of the population. But Ghana’s Youth Policy defines youth as persons between ages 15-­‐35 which then place youth in 22Ghana beyond the internationally agreed age range of 15-­‐
24. Ghana’s definition of youth is perhaps informed by the country’s context. For instance due to insufficient employment opportunities many youth languish for many years in search of jobs. These youth comprise school leavers, school dropouts and out-­‐of-­‐
school youth. No wonder that the IBIS commissioned study on youth reveals 23an estimated 250,000 youth who enter the job market annually but only (2%) get absorbed by the formal sector. Other studies have shown that the youth as a share of Ghana’s unemployed population is 60% and it is probably against this background the IMF estimates that Ghana will need 6-­‐7million jobs in the next 2 decades to absorb new entrants into the labour market. 19
According to MoE (2014) public basic schools in Ghana only received textbooks in core subjects (English, Mathematics
and Science) in 2013, after nearly five years. This was made possible by 19DFID support for the production of some 12.5
million textbooks in 2013. The supply of Religious and Moral Education, Information Communication Technology, Basic
Design and Social Studies textbooks etc remain outstanding.
20
World Bank study (WB, 2014, p.13).
21 A UNICEF/GOG report (2011) puts the population of youth 15-­‐24 age group at 24.1% 22
Koboe (2014); ‘Youth Development Interventions in Ghana: Policy and Practice’, IBIS, Ghana scoping study
Institute of Social, Statistical and Economic Research (ISSER cited by Korboe, 2014)
23
22 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 The number of unemployed and underemployed youth of Northern Ghana is not specifically known but it suffices to know that 24majority of youth (boys and girls) engaged in out-­‐migration in Ghana come from the three regions of the North and often migrate to both rural and urban areas of the south. In the TP districts as well as Sagnarigu (the new peri-­‐urban TP district), youth constitute the largest segment of their populations as the rest of Ghana; they are thus both an opportunity and a threat to the development of the districts. District level consultations on the TP development revealed that the problems of youth stem from high school dropout rates and youth-­‐
out-­‐of-­‐school, resulting in high youth unemployment and underemployment. The out of school youth were noted to mainly be engaged in seasonal farming of some five (5) months annually but are virtually unemployed in the remaining seven (7) months of the year. Their only other option is to migrate to the south of Ghana due to limited employment opportunities in the North. The school dropouts among the youth are even in a much more precarious situation because they are unable to engage in effective farming and are also not used to the work of migrants in the south. It is this category of youth who constitute the bulk of the potential or real tools for negative social mobilisation particularly during national politicking in Ghana. The IBIS youth study reveals that policy is formulated and implemented with “little or no participation of the youth” (Korboe, 2014, p.43) and further notes that when “youth” participate, they tend to be unrepresented by leaders who are no longer young, and participation is characterised as being “scant and selective, determined without broad consultation and is almost exclusively limited to males in the capital city” (Korboe, 2014 pp.19-­‐20). This confirmed marginalisation of youth from decisions that affect their own development is summed up in the IBIS study that “it is hard to find strong, effective youth-­‐oriented civil society groups in Ghana”. The causes of youth marginalisation include failure of Ghana’s education system to successfully guarantee learning and skills for children who eventually become youth. This has been worsened by a weak policy response to the skills needed by youth to be employable and stay relevant to themselves and society. Attempts by state to deal with youth employable skills have been heavily partisan, politicised, uncoordinated, and characterised with poor targeting to say the least! The effect of youth marginalisation and their lack of skills and space for influence have negative consequences on Ghana’s development and is already manifesting in growing crime-­‐wave (including cyber crime) by youth. 3.3 Accountable policy, management and financing of quality education By national policy, education is devolved to district levels under the Education Act, 2008 (Act 778) but critical decision-­‐making about education budgets, expenditure and logistics (textbook supply, teachers, chalk, class registers etc) remain centrally controlled at the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service in Accra. This limits the level of flexibility and possible influence at local levels in the provision and 24 The Participatory Poverty and Vulnerability Assessment (PPVA, GoG, UNICEF, DFID and WB, 2011) was meant to understand the regional dynamics of poverty with particular focus on Ghana’s Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions. 23 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 distribution of educational resources. By the Education Strategic Plan (ESP) framework, the state consciously creates opportunities for public-­‐private-­‐civic partnership, but without a mechanism for strengthening public institutional capacity to play its promotional and regulatory role to uphold and secure the rights of poor and marginalized people. It is for this reason the private sector growing interest in the education sector, driven by profit motive, poses a great threat to the public school system. Furthermore, it puts equal access and opportunities to free quality education at risk. Global Campaign for Education (GCE) has demonstrated that privatisation in and of education raises serious concerns in relation to gender inequality and other inequalities, both in terms of access and outcomes25. A study by the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC, 2013) also revealed that enrolment in public schools declined compared to that of private schools. Data from Education Sector Performance Reports (ESPR) appear to support this trend. Even though this phenomenon is pronounced in cities and urban centres, the tendency for Ghana’s middle class to patronise private schools instead of public schools, increases the challenge of reversing the poor quality being delivered by the public school system. Civil society consensus and joint action is needed, first based on an understanding of the growing dichotomy between privileged and underprivileged children, rural and urban children, and second an appreciation of the implications for Ghana’s development. Education funding sources to GES in the districts include government consolidated fund (GoG), donor funds from Unicef, USAID, DFID, JICA etc, Internally Generated Funds (IGF) and District Assembly Common Fund (DACF), the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFUND)26 and interventions of civil society and NGOs. A study by the 27Alliance for Change in Education project (ACE, 2009) revealed seventeen (17) funding sources for basic education in Ghana. Construction of basic schools alone, which ought to be the responsibility of District Assemblies, revealed eight (8) different funding sources. The report noted that the complex and multiple funding sources to the education sector at both national and district levels, lends the sector to fragmented planning, budgeting and accounting, and obstructs a comprehensive overview of all inputs and results measured against the inputs. The funding arrangement also reduces possibilities for efficient programmes and monitoring of various educational schemes. In spite of the several funding sources to education at the district level, GES has been most under resourced in the last three years. The District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) of District Assemblies, the closest of the funding sources to GES, has hardly been delivered timely to districts from central government, and very few DAs have managed to part with such funds to support education delivery. Moreover, where DAs have supported education delivery, it has mainly been limited to education hardware-­‐ infrastructure and furniture; very little about the software-­‐ supervision, teachers’ professional development, and quality assurance etc. Government of Ghana (GoG) direct 25 Global Campaign for Education (2014), submission to CEDAW on “Privatisation and its impact on the Right to Education of Women and Girls” 26
Ministry of Education, draft ESPR (2014)
27
The Alliance for Change in Education (ACE) was the initiative of 3 Danish organisations (Ghana Friendship
Groups in Denmark-GV; Danish Teachers’ Union-DLF; and IBIS. They commissioned Local Government
Denmark (KL) to conduct a Needs Assessment of Local Government in Gushegu and Karaga Districts, (2009)
24 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 transfers to GES have not been forthcoming, except for few transfers of the statutory capitation grant to schools. Indeed, the funding source which has sustained GES since 2013 has been that from donors and the little support from civil society and NGOs. For instance but for DFID funding for textbook procurement of as high as £25 million) in the latter part of 2013, basic schools in Ghana would probably have remained without textbooks beyond five years since receiving the last consignment. Even with the available textbooks in the districts, schools are still lacking important textbooks, and what is available do not provide the needed Pupil-­‐to-­‐Textbook Ratio of 1:1. The Global Partnership for Education Grant (GPEG) support to the deprived districts has enabled the districts to barely undertake routine monitoring and supervision of schools, in addition to the direct block grant support to schools for administration and quality improvement. Equalising educational opportunities through equitable spending, instead of just increased spending is critical for averting the use of education to reproduce or even strengthen existing social inequities.28 Equitable financing might be assumed the same as equal spending per school child. But whereas equal spending, in practice, means that an equal amount of money is spent per child, equitable spending means that money is spent to ensure equal opportunities for every child. Gross disparities in resource allocation account for inequities and poor performance in deprived districts and communities. For instance the capitation grant allocation to basic schools-­‐ until the introduction of block grants to schools by 29GPEG-­‐ was not equitable because of its per child allocation schedule. It therefore tended to benefit endowed schools much more than deprived schools. Generally education budgetary allocation to the sub-­‐sectors masks financial allocation disparities to districts and much more, to deprived districts. It is the disparities in financial allocations including other inputs and resources (teachers, textbooks, chalk etc) to districts and schools which reinforce inequality in the education sector. 30Disparities in the allocation of education inputs and resources are inevitable but prioritised and adjusted allocation of such resources will help deal with inequities. With the resources currently available at district and school levels, there has been inadequate civil society and school community level (SMC/PTA) participation in the planning and administration of the resources and funds. For instance, it is still the case that School Performance Improvement Plans (SPIPs) are developed with little involvement of SMC/PTA; sometimes because they do not know their roles and responsibilities in the process. There are instances where GPEG grants to schools have either not been utilised appropriately by school heads or have not been used at all for the desired purpose, but such happenings have gone unchecked both by the local education governance structures (SMC/PTA) and the district authorities because no one has bothered to check. However besides conducting a general audit of how school resources are utilised (as is often done by government), it would be helpful to both the schools and the sources of school inputs, resources and funds (such as the GPEG 28
World Bank report (2011)
The Ghana Partnership for Education Grant (GPEG), unlike capitation grant, allocates $1,080.20 per year to each deprived
school
30
World Bank report (2011): Improving Equity, Efficiency and Accountability of Education Service Delivery
29
25 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 Steering Committee) to obtain vital information regarding associated challenges with utilisation of resources meant for deprived schools. Ghana allocates up to (6%) of GDP to the education sector but expenditure trends in table 1 below shows that Ghana does not appear to have a specific policy on financing basic education. Both as a percentage of GDP and as a proportion of budget expenditure, allocations to the sector as a whole, and to the sub-­‐sectors in particular, fluctuate across years. Table 1: Education financing trends in Ghana Level Pre-­‐school Primary JHS SHS 2010 2011 2012 2013 Exp. (GHS) % Exp. (GHS) % Exp. (GHS) % 72,036,051 2.8 103,391,337 2.9 435,502,334 7.6 Exp. (GHS) % 363,499,436 6.4 715,160,506 27.9 1,234,146,460 34.6 1,302,972,161 22.8 1,388,792,576 24.4 370,235,825 14.4 411,648,553 11.5 969,147,257 17.0 965,117,148 16.9 400,030,646 15.6 526,809,606 14.8 1,057,413,465 18.5 1,152,064,995 20.2 TVET SPED 38,436,313 1.5 17,214,633 0.7 126,982,366 3.6 19,149,996 0.5 163,681,164 2.9 21,717,157 0.4 103,039,432 1.8 28,064,385 0.5 NFED 13,357,023 0.5 15,154,167 0.4 40,538,896 0.7 39,952,006 0.7 Teacher Education Tertiary HIV-­‐AIDS Management & Agencies 62,056,093 2.4 -­‐ -­‐ -­‐ 511,806,744 20 1,570,316 0.1 639,230,889 17.9 1,081,971,635 19.0 1,106,283,329 19.4 1,387,335 0.04 -­‐ -­‐ 362,459,208 14.1 487,809,862 13.7 631,075,530 11.1 549,865,010 9.7 Total 2,564,363,357 100 3,565,710,570 100 5,704,019,600 100 5,696,678,315 100 Source: MoE (2014, table 34), draft Education Sector Performance Report Education is financed in Ghana from varied and numerous sources as noted above but these appear uncoordinated and visibly inadequate for the sector. For instance, of the allocations in table 1 above, 31total allocation for compensation (wages and salaries) was (97.2%) of the total education budget in 2012. This slightly dropped to (95.5%) in 2013. The little allocation for education goods and services (learning materials, equipment etc) of (3%) and investment (1.5%) in 2013 shows that much more remains to be done both in terms of the quantum of funds allocated to the sector and efficient management of the sector wage bill. With the general declining aid trends, Ghana needs to explore alternative ways of funding the investment and goods and services components of the basic education sector budget to deal with funding gaps. 31
MoE (2014)
26 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 4.0 PROGRAMME OBJECTIVES AND INDICATORS Building upon experiences, practices and lessons learned from two previous education TPs in Ghana, the Education Thematic Programme (2015-­‐2019) will partner with eleven 32(11) local and national civil society organisations, of which eight (8) will be local partners (2 of them new TP partners but not entirely new to IBIS) and remaining three (3) national level partners (of which 1 will be entirely new to IBIS), to influence, advocate and engage state at local and national levels to equitably improve basic education and skills development delivery in Ghana. The TP will link-­‐up with the IBIS global Education Against Poverty and Inequality (EAPI) Programme to work with 33one (1) more national partner and work collaboratively with think-­‐tanks and coalitions to support work at regional and global levels. Mobilisation, capacity strengthening and networking of PTA/SMCs will be undertaken by local partners at the district level. The local CSO partners will additionally be engaged to strengthen GES/DA capacity to both consolidate learning from existing TP models and replicate models in their districts and to similar districts. District and school level education expenditure and resource tracking will be facilitated by NNED, Choice-­‐
Ghana, CALID and EGOCSA and the results used to engage authorities at district level and further on feed into the advocacy work of IMANI-­‐Ghana, GNECC and Send-­‐Ghana at the national level. The TP’s work with local and national CSOs will ultimately promote quality basic education in the immediate TP districts; improve upon education management and increase education inputs and resources to the districts. The evidence from working in the immediate TP districts will be used to affect the wider public education system through regional and national level advocacy. The national level experience will further on feed into the global work of EAPI. In the immediate 3 TP districts (Sawla-­‐Tuna-­‐Kalba, Sagnarigu and Kpandai districts) at least 60 schools, 25,000 children, 60 head teachers and at least 120 teachers will benefit from effective teaching and learning in their schools through teachers’ professional development and increased inputs and resources. Within the youth empowerment intervention, the capacities of the earmarked CSOs (CALID and FOSDA) will be further built to mobilise and support youth groups. Additionally the TP and partners will collaborate with the National Youth Authority and allied agencies to decentralise youth interventions to local levels. At least three 3 youth groups (of at least 20 members each) will be targeted per district to raise awareness on their rights and responsibilities as citizens, and to demand skills training for self-­‐employment. In the schools and districts of the old existing TP districts (Saboba and Bibiani/Sefwi-­‐Wiawso districts) approximately 60 schools, 25,000 children and 180 head teachers and teachers will benefit from the new approach of the new TP in strengthening quality teaching and learning in schools, effective education management and increased financing of education at the district level. 32 The eleven TP partners are CALID, NORSAAC, NNED, Choice-­‐Ghana, EGOCSA, Link Community Development, GILLBT, Savana Signatures (local partners) and Send-­‐Ghana, Imani-­‐Ghana and GNECC (national partners). NORSAAC, CALID and Send-­‐Ghana are also partners of the Governance TP. 33 Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), a partner of the AAP programme 27 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 4.1 Education Programme Objective: Civil society organisations and constituents are strengthened and actively influencing Education policy reform, implementation and financing, and the Government of Ghana delivers on the right to free quality education for marginalised children, youth and adults. To realise this development objective the TP will achieve the following specific objectives by TP end: Specific objectives 1: Marginalised children, with focus on girls, are increasingly accessing and completing quality basic education. Indicators are: • The completion rate in formal and non-­‐formal education where IBIS and partners are working has been increased by 10%; of these 30% are girls. • 25,000 children (of these 30% girls) in the area where IBIS and partners are working have improved literacy and numeracy skills • 5,000 more children (of these 40% girls) have had access to quality free basic education in the area where IBIS and partners are working by end of TP compared to baseline. • 60 local education management bodies in the area where IBIS and partners are working have been strengthened Specific objective 2: Marginalised youth, with focus on young women asserting their right to education especially skills development programmes and to participate and influence decision making as active citizens. Indicators are: • 9 marginalised youth groups -­‐ at least 3 per district of 20 members each-­‐ (with 30% young women active) mobilised to claim their rights to skills development and participate in decision-­‐making on youth programmes. • 4 CSOs have been strengthened and are actively dealing influencing youth issues at local and national level. • At least 3 skills development initiatives influenced by advocacy performed by IBIS partners or youth groups mobilised. Specific objective 3: CSOs are actively demanding equitable, transparent and accountable management and financing of education resources and pro-­‐poor policies for quality education in Ghana. Indicators are: 28 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 •
•
•
At least 3 quality education models/approaches tested within the TP are actively used in advocacy for education policy changes at national level or institutionalised in education delivery at provincial/local level. At least 5 advocacy initiatives undertaken by IBIS partners based on budget analysis and education expenditure tracking with clear change objectives. 11 partner development plans implemented with positive effect on partners thematic, advocacy and organisational capacity strengthening, within education. A full Logic frame will be developed and attached to the TP document as part of the TP upstart. 29 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 4.2 Annual Objectives Development Civil society organisations and constituents are strengthened and actively influencing Education policy reform, implementation and Objective financing, and the Government of Ghana delivers on the right to free quality education for marginalised children, youth and adults. Specific Objectives Indicator 1 Indicator 2 Annual Objectives for 2015 SO1: Marginalised children, with focus on girls, are increasingly accessing and completing quality basic education. The completion rate in formal and non-­‐formal education where IBIS and partners are working has been increased by 10%; of these 30% are girls. 25,000 children (of these 30% girls) in the area where IBIS and partners are working have improved literacy and numeracy skills -­‐By 2015, a model of teachers’ capacity strengthening in reading skills is developed and implemented in at least 2 districts covered by the programme. -­‐By 2015, the capacity of the Education Team of IBIS in Ghana is strengthened in reading skills to enable them to add value to the work of the partners. SO2: Marginalised youth, with focus on young women asserting their right to education especially skills development programmes and to participate and influence decision making as active citizens. 9 marginalised youth groups-­‐ at least 3 per district of 20 members each-­‐ (with 30% young women active) mobilised to claim their rights to skills development and participate in decision-­‐
making on youth programmes. 4 CSOs have been strengthened and are actively dealing influencing youth issues at local and national level -­‐ By 2015, three (3) marginalised youth groups have been mobilised and their capacity strengthened in public policy advocacy. -­‐By 2015, the capacity of at least 3 CSOs is strengthened in how to mobilise and develop advocacy capacity of youth groups; SO3: CSOs are actively demanding equitable, At least 3 quality education At least 5 advocacy -­‐During 2015, at least 2 partner organisations will 30 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 transparent and accountable management and financing of education resources and pro-­‐poor policies for quality education in Ghana. models/approaches tested within the TP are actively used in advocacy for education policy changes at national level or institutionalised in education delivery at provincial/local level. initiatives undertaken by IBIS partners based on budget analysis and education expenditure tracking with clear change objectives. analyse the education sector budget and track its disbursement from national to district levels; -­‐By 2015, at least one advocacy initiative undertaken by IBIS partners based on education budget analyses. 31 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 5.0 PROGRAMME STRATEGIES 5.1 Education Programme Strategies and areas of intervention In line with IBIS’ Global Partnership Strategy, the programme will be implemented in partnership with local CSOs and think tanks including CALID, NORSAAC, NNED, Choice-­‐
Ghana, Link Community Development, GILLBT, Savana Signatures (local partners) and Send-­‐Ghana, IMANI-­‐Ghana and GNECC (national partners). NORSAAC, CALID and Send-­‐
Ghana are partners of the Governance TP. Specific Objective 1 (SO1) 5.1.1 Promote innovative approaches for improved reading skills of basic school pupils focusing on relevance of TLM used and knowledge and skills of teachers in the use of mother tongue, learner-­‐centred teaching and use of 34ICTs for enhanced lesson delivery. Against the backdrop of poor reading abilities of basic school pupils in Ghana, IBIS TP partners and collaborators will model approaches focused on reading skills and ICT use, and consolidate their experiences and practices of teachers’ professional development around TLM preparation, use of mother tongue as medium of instruction to improve upon pupils’ reading skills/abilities, and use of learner-­‐centred, gender-­‐sensitive and participatory teaching approaches etc to influence the wider public school system across districts. IBIS and Partners will package the lessons learnt and best practices from the two previous TPs, and working collaboratively with others, influence the school system at district level for better quality of teaching and learning outcomes. Areas of intervention: • Support teachers’ professional development focusing on consistent modelling of approaches to teaching effective reading skills (using the English Language and mother tongue) etc in schools at district level. • Work with partners to advocate increased number of Ghanaian language use at lower primary and decentralised production and distribution of relevant mother tongue TLMs by the Curriculum Research and Development Division (CRDD/GES) focused on reading abilities of children. • Support consolidated and effective use of mother tongue as medium of instruction and GES’ adoption of expanded use of mother tongue as medium of instruction in public schools at the district level. • Support ICT modelling in education initiatives that focus on teachers’ capacity to enhance lesson delivery using ICTs etc. 34 The TP will model ICT use for enhanced lesson delivery by teachers with one of its new partners (Savana Signatures) who is technically competent in that and has already initiated ICT enhanced interventions within the education and health sectors in some peri-­‐urban and rural districts. 32 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 5.1.2 Promote consolidation of evidence-­‐based models of equitable access to education (Wing School and CBE) and continue advocacy efforts for their adoption by the wider public school system for the benefit of poor and marginalised children, especially girls. The TP and partners (NNED, Choice-­‐Ghana, Link Community Development, GILLBT), building upon their experiences of Wing School and CBE model implementation in previous IBIS TPs and in other programmes, will scale-­‐up regional and district level advocacy efforts in the three regions of the North, targeting GES and District Assemblies of other districts and regions, to adopt the Wing School and CBE models for equitable access to education for deprived children. Advocacy at the national level will focus on increased government financial allocation to enable local level adoption and implementation of the models. Advocacy efforts will further extend to teacher supply challenges in deprived areas where the community teachers and community facilitators’ concepts in deprived school communities will be used as entry points to secure the allocation of qualified teachers to such communities, and further advocate professional development support for community teachers, who live and teach in deprived communities. Areas of intervention: • Technically support to the districts of the three regions of the North, who buy into Wing School and CBE models, conduct a mapping of and categorisation out-­‐
of-­‐school children for the appropriate intervention, with focus on girls. • Support national partners (SEND, GNECC and IMANI) to advocate equitable distribution of teachers to deprived schools. • Support advocacy initiatives to mainstream the Community Teachers/facilitators concepts into Ghana’s national volunteer scheme. • Support continued advocacy by CSOs (SEND, GNEEC and IMANI) and CBE Alliance (SfL, NNED, Plan Ghana, etc) of government and donor financing of the CBE policy. • Support continued monitoring of existing Wing School and CBE model (Christmas Calendar Wing School project, Hempel Wing School and DFID-­‐
supported CBE) implementation efforts and show case evidence for local and national level advocacy. 5.1.3 Promote evidence-­‐based solutions to achieving Gender Parity/Gender Equality through gender-­‐sensitive practices in school communities. The gender strategy within this TP will seek to reverse gender-­‐stereotypes in homes and communities as well as at school level using SMC/PTA platforms and engagement at the school. To achieve and reinforce equity and equality of access to quality basic education for boys and girls, the strategy will promote an enabling school environment for equal participation by boys and girls and influence school level practices (teaching and learning processes, school leadership etc). Girls and boys alike will further be targeted with evidence-­‐based practices such as girls’ clubs, girls’ camps to improve upon their knowledge and skills of Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights, assertiveness, confidence level etc. 33 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 Areas of intervention • Support assessment of the effectiveness of existing gender/child friendly school concepts on teaching and learning and use evidence for local and national level advocacy to secure increased government financing of the concepts. • Support continuous CSO effort at facilitating community awareness rising to reverse gender-­‐stereotypes in homes and communities and promote girls’ participation in school through gender-­‐sensitive cultural practices. • Continue support consistent practice of gender-­‐sensitive teaching by GES teachers and scale-­‐up good practices based on shared experience to new districts. • Support documentation and packaging of girls’ clinic and girls’ club concepts, and advocate their wider adoption and replication in the public school system at local and national levels. 5.1.4 Support strengthened local education management by increasing capacity of District Education Oversight Committees (DEOCs), School Management Committees and Parent Teacher Association (PTAs) Education management is situated within the educational management structure of GES. Building upon IBIS’ experience of building CSO capacity to strengthen the functionality of DEOCs and SMC/PTAs, the strategy will be geared towards enhanced CSO capacity to support emerging civil society organisations (including SMC/PTAs) to enable them become sustainable without external financial support. Additionally, IBIS and partners will consciously facilitate increased women representation on school boards (SMCs/PTAs) with the view to increasing women’s participation in decision-­‐
making at school level. Areas of intervention: • Support CSO capacity to facilitate participatory school management (SPIP preparation and utilisation of capitation grant) by SMCs/PTAs. • Build CSO capacity to facilitate social audit and community score cards of educational inputs and resources at school level and use evidence for district, regional and national level advocacy. • Work with the IBIS Governance programme and like-­‐minded organisations (including CSOs), to consciously support DEOC to function using peer-­‐to-­‐peer influence and possibly working with GES especially at the Northern Regional level to institute a name and shame policy (reward and sanction?) on DEOC functionality. • Work through CSO partners as intermediaries, SMC/PTAs and networks will be supported to hold education managers accountable at community and district levels and further on draw strength from working with regional and national networks. • Facilitate CSO engagement of GES to use statutory resources (including personnel) to strengthen SMC/PTA functionality at district level. 34 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 Specific Objective 2 (SO2) 5.1.5 Support CSO capacity to mobilise and strengthen youth groups to promote full and equal rights of youth at community, district and national levels The TP will promote CSO capacity to mobilise and strengthen youth groups to promote full and equal rights of youth at community, district and national levels. The capacity of mobilised youth groups will be built on good citizenship and rights, and to advocate and assert their right to participate in decision making, and access to skills development at local and national levels. The TP will partner technically competent organisations and CSOs on youth matters to advocate decentralisation of the National Youth Authority to local levels and create access for youth to participate in decisions that affect them. Youth skills development is a new area for IBIS in Ghana but the strategy for youth development will take inspiration from the IBIS concept paper on youth and education. The concept notes that ‘skills development is not equated with formal, technical, vocational and agricultural education and training alone, but is used more generally to refer also to the productive capacities acquired through all levels of education and training occurring in formal, non-­‐formal and on-­‐the-­‐job settings, which enable individuals in all areas of the economy to become fully and productively engaged in livelihoods and to have the opportunity to adapt these capacities to meet the changing demands and opportunities of the economy and labour market.’ The youth empowerment strategy will seek to advance IBIS’ global aim of “contributing to the inclusion of youth as active citizens of society with full and equal enjoyment of rights, responsibilities, and participation in decision-­‐making as well as access to and control over resources”. IBIS in Ghana will support youth empowerment as provided for under the National Youth Policy. Youth empowerment will be tackled within a rights perspective by facilitating the formation of and support existing youth groups and associations, support civil society in research, policy review and advocacy to demand education and skills training and secure a full utilisation of finances for youth-­‐related programmes. Areas of intervention • Support CSOs to advocate decentralisation of the National Youth Authority to district levels. • Support CSOs to monitor implementation of the National Youth Policy. • Strengthen CSOs to mobilise and develop advocacy capacity of youth groups and associations to engage as active citizens at local and national levels. • Support CSOs to monitor local government support to youth groups. • Test models for improving District Education Office counselling services to facilitate post-­‐primary transition (focusing on Junior High School and beyond). Specific Objective 3 (SO3) 5.1.6 Promote public-­‐civic partnership for participatory and interactive education policy formulation and implementation The Education TP will aim at contributing to Ghana’s fulfilment of the constitutional obligation of ensuring full implementation of the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) policy through decentralised, accountable and transparent management of education resources. Information on and analysis of central government 35 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 allocations to the sector, and transfers to local levels will be urgently required to track the adequate financing or otherwise of basic education in Ghana, and at the district level in particular. Of much more importance will be the extent of equity in the education sector allocations made from central to local levels. This would require working with TP civil society partners (including GNECC, IMANI-­‐Ghana, SEND-­‐Ghana). Similarly local civil society (including NNED members, EGOCSA, Choice etc) will work with school level governance structures to track and analyse education resource flow to schools and use evidence to engage at school and district level authorities. The evidences from districts level will enrich national level advocacy, and the budget analysis at national level will similarly inform the type of resource/expenditure tracking to be undertaken at district and school levels. IBIS aims at securing adequate and sustainable resources for the efficient and equitable provision of quality basic education and skills development. In Ghana, the cause of the current education crises is more do with policy implementation than policy formulation, even though civil society participation in policy formulation is greatly desired. Within the existing framework of decentralised, transparent and accountable education management, IBIS will support its CSO partners to focus on (1) higher and more equitable education spending; (2) equitable allocation mechanisms; and (3) improved physical school conditions and resources. Besides the inadequacy of desired civil society input at policy formulation stages, education policies in Ghana are challenged with appropriate targeting to address the problems for which they were formulated. The TP will facilitate platforms that enable national CSO partners to influence national budgeting in favour of allocations to the education sector through participation in annual sector budgeting and aggregation of sector budgets into the national budget. Broader consultation during the budgeting processes – including CSO participation-­‐ will likely resolve some of the educational sector budget and financial allocation challenges. IBIS will support tracking and analyses of education policies/programmes and spending, to ensure transparency, accountability and equity. Local civil society will be informed by the work of national CSOs to monitor transfers to target beneficiaries from central government to local levels. Pro-­‐poor policy interventions such as school feeding (GSFP) and capitation grant schemes will be monitored to ensure that they target poor and marginalised children. Areas of intervention: • Facilitate CSO coordination and participation in policy formulation and implementation to secure relevance for poor and marginalised people. • Support national CSO partners to conduct education budget analysis for national policy advocacy based on equity principles and use budget information to guide expenditure and resource tracking work of local CSO partners at district level. • Strengthen platforms for education policy dialogue between state and civil society. • Explore opportunities for cooperation with IBIS global education policy advocacy programme (EAPI) and ANCEFA to promote CSO advocacy for increased education financing from the extractive industry tax revenues 36 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 5.1.7 Promote CSO research and advocacy for efficient and equitable allocation, distribution and management of public education resources The TP will facilitate civil society work to focus on government revenue sources, the composition and amount of revenues generated from the different sources, and allocations to the education sector; education spending and the actual policy priorities for, and spending on public education across levels of governance – including local, international government and non-­‐governmental actors. CSOs will be further made to understand fiscal control and capacity, and mechanisms to ensure effective planning, monitoring and execution of education budgets, and to track and assess education spending across decentralised levels of management. Areas of intervention: • Support CSO to track education resources from national to local and school levels, including budget analysis, budget transparency, expenditure tracking, social audits and impact assessments. • Support national CSOs to conduct studies on education resource allocation to the sub-­‐sectors and examine adherence to equity and pro-­‐poor principles for purposes of advocacy. • Support local CSO monitoring of public education resources (e.g capitation grant/GPEG allocation, DFID support etc) and spending in deprived districts. 5.1.8 Promote education governance through strengthened civil society groups and coalitions at local and national levels to demand education rights. The TP will identify and work with civil society at national, district and community levels to demand education rights. Research groups, think tanks, women groups, youth groups, PTAs and SMCs and their networks will be mobilised to advocate the right to quality basic education in their communities. The TP will facilitate civil society engagement with state using existing platforms (e.g School Performance Appraisal Meetings (SPAM), district, regional and national education reviews and forums etc) at community, district, regional and national levels. The TP will further support civil society to empower lower level education governance structures (PTAs and SMCs and communities) to claim their right to education from duty-­‐bearers and execute their responsibility to education delivery. Areas of intervention: • Support civil society networks, coalitions and think tanks to claim education rights for poor and marginalised people. • Support national CSO agenda-­‐setting on education privatization in Ghana and the implications for inequality of access to quality basic education. • Support CSO advocacy coalitions and networks such as the CBE Alliance and Education Sector Working Group in the three regions of the North to jointly monitor and advocate equitable delivery of quality basic education. • Support emerging civil society (e.g SMC, PTA etc) to be vibrant for effective advocacy and be able to engage emerging opportunities for the educational development of their communities. 37 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 •
Support NNED and GNECC to collaboratively work with EAPI to create national and regional educational platforms to dialogue on emerging educational issues. 5.2 Strategic Approach to Advocacy 5.2.1 IBIS Change Triangle The IBIS change triangle will primarily drive this education TP. Achieving the desired change will be anchored on continuous facilitation and strengthening of civil society organisational capacity and their thematic competencies for advocacy. Persistent vulnerability and poverty is directly linked to recurring powerlessness, isolation and voicelessness of citizens. Citizens can only fulfil their rights by participating in the governance of their resources and demanding accountability and responsiveness from duty bearers. But is civil society in Ghana ready for this challenge? Whilst CSO financial sustainability is widely recognized as a challenge, poor advocacy skills, planning and execution capacities, weak leadership, and poor management systems severely constrain CSO ability to be responsive and proactively contribute to quality education service delivery through effective evidence-­‐based advocacy and policy discourse. The presence of CSOs with mastery of development options based on experience, with capacity to engage and propose policy/strategic alternatives to government and duty bearers is mandatory for breaking the vicious cycle of marginalization and deprivation that confronts basic education delivery in Ghana. 5.2.2 Strengthening CSO Capacity IBIS will facilitate partner advocacy capacity strengthening in research, budget work, policy analysis, communication, networking and policy engagement etc to leverage their presence and influence on policy discourse. IBIS will further facilitate systematic organization development and capacity strengthening support for its partners at national, regional and local levels to improve organizational performance for policy influencing. As a learning and knowledge organization, IBIS and partners will document and develop knowledge management systems with conscious commitment to sharing what works in addressing the education needs of communities to prompt new thinking and insights to enhance IBIS’ and partner performance. 5.2.3 The conduct of advocacy Advocacy is about influencing power, policy and practice to catalyse change that affects the poor and marginalised. The failure of state to respond to citizens’ rights and demands, a failure to manage resources responsively and a failure to involve beneficiaries in service planning and decisions is the reason for the inequity in education service delivery in Ghana. From a rights-­‐based approach, the education TP will support civil society organizations to mobilize citizens to campaign and advocate the fulfilment of their rights to education through accountable and transparent management of education resources. The advocacy and campaign grid of both national and local CSOs will entail evidence gathering from successful models and approaches based on own experience and those of others; dissemination of evidence; and 38 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 engagement, making careful use of change agents on specific advocacy issues to influence policy and practice. Partners’ ability to carry out evidence-­‐based advocacy, ability to proactively and thoroughly propose solution-­‐oriented policy alternatives will not only influence policy formulation and implementation but hold public officers accountable. Besides partners, IBIS will collaborate with like-­‐minded, organisations (including Action Aid, CAMFED and donor partners-­‐ World Bank, UNICEF, USAID and DFID) to sponsor high profile events, seminars, forums designed to stimulate and influence public debates around equitable quality basic education delivery as the central theme. Also, IBIS will `use its membership of Education Development Partners (EDP) as an opportunity to push forward key evidences emanating from the work of its partners to influence the agenda of EDP meetings and thereby directly influencing donor and government education policies. Further, IBIS and Action Aid has begun a process of working together (harmonising) to support GNECC in its advocacy activities. This will be pursued by this TP to maximise its advocacy results. This strategy will pursue joint advocacy influenced by IBIS programme and partner experiences and those of like-­‐minded organisations. The advocacy options to be explored include 1) issue-­‐based advocacy under sole partnership; 2) Like-­‐minded partners clustered and advocating specific issues as currently being tested in the Governance TP and 3) multi-­‐stakeholders advocating on an issue of common interest, such as the CBE Alliance and the Education Sector Working Group-­‐Northern Region. Advocacy issues will be clearly defined and translated into Partnership Development Plans, followed by advocacy planning for specific advocacy themes or agendas to be pursued by partners. Achieving this consistency therefore requires that Programme Facilitators, Programme Development Advisor, National Policy Advisor and Programme Director, work closely, particularly in partnership development and project planning and implementation. The content of this TP was also inspired by the campaigning ideas from OXFAM during their country strategy planning process in which some key senior management staff of IBIS had the opportunity to participate actively upon the invitation by the Oxfam in Ghana Team. 5.3 Strategic Approach to Partnership 5.3.1 Strengthening partner institutional capacity and learning Strong local organizations and institutions have the opportunity to contribute to the transformation of the education sector, particularly the basic education sub-­‐sector. IBIS will adopt a systematic view of capacity strengthening of partners and strive, focusing on partner strengths and weaknesses, to develop new capacities towards achieving our common goals. The approach to capacity development includes strengthening internal organizational systems, structures, policies and procedures, staff skills and knowledge base, as well as improving the quality of service delivery, strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation, fundraising and marketing skills of partner organizations. This 39 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 represents a holistic approach to working with local organizations to bring about real change for their communities and beneficiaries. 5.3.2 Strengthening partner staff capacity and learning Leadership development at partner level will be an innovation to this strategy. Stimulating and facilitating leadership development is critical for partners just as for staff of IBIS. Leaders of partner organizations will be targets for a leadership development programme. Another innovation in this strategy is promoting organizational learning at both IBIS and partner levels. IBIS and partners recognize the need to harness and manage existing knowledge and experiences for institutional change. Whilst ensuring a conscious effort to learning and sharing what works or does not work, a process of knowledge brokering, documentation and sharing will be rigorously followed, involving thorough documentation of processes, disseminating and linking together IBIS staff and partners, in communities of practice35 around identified knowledge and learning groups. Building on IBIS’ experiences, the programme and partners will continue to develop education tools and models, critical for up-­‐scaling gains in access to quality basic education and girls’ education. Tested models for education financing will also be studied and adopted for scale-­‐up. Existing spaces, such as partners’ forum and mid-­‐year reviews, as well as learning festivals and exchanges will be explored to promote learning for impact driven performance. 5.4 Gender strategy Throughout the world women have less power and opportunities than men. The obstacle to gender equality is the unequal power relations between men and women36. The TP recognises these gender issues and would consciously work to address the gender factor in poverty and denial of rights37. Whereas education as a right is recognized by the constitution of Ghana, it has been noted already that disparities and inequalities still persist in access, quality and achievements to varied degrees across urban and rural areas. The TP gender strategy will entail as follows. First, research has shown that classroom interaction, curriculum, enrolment, attendance and achievement patterns, and teacher training, play significant roles in perpetuating gender inequalities38. Therefore IBIS will work with men (at community level and teachers at school level) and boys (within community and school level) to unlearn gender stereotypes. The overall effect will be to promote equity and equality of access to quality basic education for girls and boys. Gender equality and women’s rights will be integral to the TP intervention strategies, complemented by knowledge strengthening and skills of programme staff in gender analysis to enable them develop perspectives and responsiveness to gender issues in facilitating processes with partners and communities. 35
Communities of practice are groups of people/organizations who share a concern or a passion for something they do and
learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.
36
IBIS Gender guidelines and toolbox
37
IBIS Ghana gender policy
38
Gender mainstreaming in education: A reference manual for Government and other Stakeholders
40 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 Secondly, during partnership development plans gender analysis will be applied to examine the impacts of interventions on girls and boys, women and men. Fundamentally, school governance is one of the levels the TP can achieve lots of progress in terms of influencing women’s participation in education decision-­‐making. Building upon IBIS and partner experiences in the promotion of women’s representation and their active role in SMCs/PTA leadership, these will be consistently modelled and documented for replication in similar contexts. The overall aim of this part of the strategy is to improve decision-­‐making with women’s participation and promote accountable relationship between communities and education service providers. Using information from gender analysis, specific interventions will be geared towards addressing gender inequality in education delivery. Involving a critical mass of women in education delivery processes including their membership of Parent Teacher Association (PTA) and School Management Committee (SMC) leadership will be an indicator of promoting gender equality within the programme and among partners. Women and men representation will be measured and assessed within activities (including meetings, participation at trainings and decision making processes) of partner organizations. Third, IBIS and partners will consistently document and support the wider implementation of strategic gender-­‐sensitive models (including girls’ clubs, girls’ clinic, girls’ model school etc) and activities that address the specific educational needs of poor and marginalised communities. these models will include promoting holistic gender-­‐
sensitive school environment, that provides the physical needs of girls and boys, in relation to their privacy and hygiene; curriculum content, language and methodology that respond to the needs and entitlements of girls and boys generally; educational materials with gender sensitive contents and examples; and girls’ empowerment, through counselling and role modelling. 5.5. Sustainability Strategy and Phase-­‐out With Ghana’s lower middle-­‐Income status, major donors have started reducing their development aid to the country, and have begun planning for their eventual exit in the medium term. Being the third successive Education TP of IBIS in Ghana, it is imperative that a clear sustainability strategy is spelt out. It must, however, be noted that due to rising inequality in Ghana, there will be the need for a future IBIS programme focusing on redistribution related to education budget. IBIS has over the period been part of some phase outs with mixed experiences. These include the phase out of the first Toms Project in 2010 and that of ACE Project in 2013. Under this TP, exiting and phasing out of the previous districts (Bole and East Gonja) has become necessary so as to avoid dependency syndrome, which has started creeping in from the state actors in those districts. IBIS will have to phase out some of the fundraised projects ending in 2015 (TOMS/DANIDA Business Partnerships, SIDA, BEQUIP), in the absence of extension of funding for these projects. The results and lessons learnt will be well-­‐documented and shared widely. Learning from the Past 41 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 The EfE II final evaluation (2014, p48) lauds the “sense of community ownership” of IBIS models, e.g. the Wing Schools and Girls’ Clubs, which “reflects acknowledgement of the promise of the models.” However, not only does the evaluation question the sustainability of some programmes if IBIS withdraws funding, but recommends that “an overarching goal of a new TP, therefore should be to support CSOs, CS, and particularly GES/DA to develop their own capacity to improve access to quality education.” (p38). Furthermore, a key lesson that has been learnt in the implementation of the previous TPs is that sustainability is difficult to achieve if it is not discussed with the partners from the outset of programme design and during implementation. What is being done differently? During the consultative meetings with the partners to collate ideas for developing this TP, the partners were informed that this might be the final Education TP of IBIS in Ghana. In this regard, sustaining the results achieved by the previous TPs and the current one were briefly discussed. Suggestions that came from partners included the need to ensure that the key models that have proven to be successful are captured in the district development plans so as to enhance the chances of using funds from central government to fund such interventions. Also, it was agreed that the characteristics, processes (how to), cost and results of the various models are well-­‐documented and shared with key education stakeholders in the country before the end of this new TP. The TP will work closely with the Governance TP to tackle the age-­‐old problem of delays in the disbursement of central government funds to District Assemblies through policy advocacy at the national level using documented evidence of the effect of this on education delivery in the deprived districts. To ensure that these thoughts become reality, the TP will use the first half of next year (2015) to hold series of participatory meetings with its partners to prepare a roadmap to achieving the above-­‐mentioned strategies. These will be incorporated in the Partnership Development Plans (PDPs) of each partner organisation. Inadequate partner capacity in policy advocacy and fundraising remains a concern. Our experience from EfE II is that (1) learning between IBIS staff and partners is far more efficient than “traditional capacity building” through workshop and that (2) capacity building must be demand-­‐driven. In response, this TP counts on three new, full-­‐time positions that will provide support-­‐on-­‐demand to partners: Policy & Advocacy Specialist, Education Management Specialist, and Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist. In addition, the part-­‐time Programme Development Advisor will support partner fundraising. Finally, and equally important, by including national partners other than GNECC, we hope to strengthen the capacity of local CSO partners from participating in issue-­‐based advocacy such as the CBE Alliance but also longer-­‐term, institutionalised advocacy such as the Education Sector Working Group. 42 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 6.0 COMMUNICATION STRATEGY Drawing from the Communications Strategy for the Ghana Country Programme, the Education TP would use appropriate forms and channels that ensure effective communication with its target audience at various levels (local, national and international) and also contribute to IBIS’ communication efforts in Denmark. The programme would use communication to raise awareness about the programme, foster good relationship with key stakeholders to ensure participation and buy-­‐in and improve exchange of ideas and information within the implementing team. Communication would also be employed to support the TP’s advocacy and fundraising efforts, as well as improve documentation, packaging and dissemination of key programme results, challenges and best practices. The programme would strive to build the capacity of staff and partners in various aspects of communication to enable them utilise these skills to increase their own learning and performance and be able to contribute to meeting the communication objectives of the programme, such as documenting learning, change stories, among others. The planned communication activities of the Education TP would be mainstreamed into the country-­‐level annual Communication Plan which would spell out how the various communication activities would be implemented within a specific timeframe and budget. This offers another opportunity to increase synergy across programmes. A substantial part of the total programme budget would be allocated for communication activities (with clear task-­‐lines). An annual budget would be generated based on the annual action plan. In all communication efforts, emphasis would be placed on adopting the communication tools that yield the best results and ensures value for money. Communication for Development In addition to the regular communication activities, the Education TP would explore and employ some Communication for Development (C4D) approaches and tools as part of its strategies to realise the overall goal and specific objectives of the programme. For example, Information Education and Communication (IEC) materials would be produced to reinforce interest among children and youth, particularly, to pursue education and also claim their rights. 43 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 7.0 FUNDRAISING STRATEGY As the new Education TP takes off in 2015, many of the current fund-­‐raised projects of the current TP would be ending. In fulfilment of the Ghana programme fundraising requirement (of 50% from institutional fundraising), the programme will be compelled to fundraise from both institutional and private funding sources to supplement the Danida Frame. The TP in collaboration with IBIS HO will target and raise private funds for education from within Denmark and beyond. Institutional fundraising within Ghana will target multilateral donors such as the World Bank, UN and European Commission (EuropeAid) and bilateral donors such USAID and DFID. To achieve the above, TP staff capacities for fundraising will be strengthened, and to complement this, a core fund-­‐raising team will be constituted to proactively search for opportunities to share project ideas as well as respond to calls for proposals. Project ideas will be developed as concepts notes with HO support, awaiting calls from donors. Besides some of the concept notes would be used to approach donors for funding. Also, mapping potential funding sources will be undertaken to direct ‘who and where’ to share concept notes or project ideas. The Programme Development Advisor’s role will be critical to support these processes. Joint proposals with the governance programme have become much more possible, as both programmes appear to have a common advocacy approach of resource/budget tracking and a specific objective on youth development. Specific areas will be explored as the strategy rolls out. Again building partner capacity to fundraise will be the TP value addition to them, and will be pursued through strengthening partner proposal writing skills, recommending and linking partners to funding sources, and endorsing partners’ applications to donors. However guided by lessons from the current TP where fundraised projects appear to have over-­‐stretched some staff and also compromised the effectiveness of some models, there will be critical analysis of funding opportunities that come the way of the TP to ensure that fund raised projects directly contribute to the objectives of the TP. 44 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 8.0 OUTLINE OF PROGRAMME ACTIVITIES 8.1 Specific Objective 1 activities • Conduct baseline on reading abilities in selected deprived schools • Design and test gender-­‐sensitive reading toolkit with DTST, incl. mother tongue instruction and ICT use • Collaborate with selected Colleges of Education (CoE) to test reading models using mother tongue instruction and model ICT-­‐enhanced lesson delivery. • Support GES to use the National In-­‐Service Training (INSET) policy to reinforce INSET on Learner-­‐Centred Teaching Methods (LCTMs) in schools. • Engage CRDD to expand use of mother tongue instruction and to decentralise TLM production • Respond to demand for Wing School and CBE models • Conduct baselines on out-­‐of-­‐school children in selected districts for Wing School and CBE implementation • Support advocacy to mainstream Community • Teachers concept into Ghana’s National Volunteer Scheme • Promote girls’ participation in schooling through gender-­‐sensitive cultural practices, and ensure GES/DA promotion of girl-­‐friendly school environments • Documentation of Girls’ Clinic, Girls’ Club and Girls Model JHS models, and advocacy for adoption • Advocacy for DA funding of DEOCs to promote effective education management. 8.2 Specific Objective 2 activities • Build CSO capacity to advocate for decentralisation of NYA and monitor implementation of NYP • Build CSO capacity for SRHR education among identified youth groups and in cooperation with GES/GHS institutionalise SRHR practices. • Identify districts to test models for improving DEO counselling services • IBIS and partner CSOs to conduct national youth training needs assessment • Build CSO capacity to advocate for adequate national funding for youth skills development • Facilitate spaces for dialogue between organised youth and state institutions on relevant technical and vocational skills training. 8.3 Specific Objective 3 activities • Build CSO capacity on resource tracking and spending, incl. budget analysis, budget transparency, expenditure tracking and social audits • Build CSO capacity to advocate for equitable resource allocation and spending • Support research on teacher deployment and advocate for equitable teacher distribution • Strengthen existing platforms for state-­‐civil society education dialogue, f.ex. National Education Sector Group 45 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 •
•
•
•
•
Pursue opportunities for cooperation with IBIS global Education Against Poverty and Inequality (EAPI) Programme and ANCEFA, eg promoting increased education financing from the extractive industry tax revenues. Facilitate CSO advocacy coalitions and networks, f.ex. CBE Alliance and Education Sector Working Groups in Northern Sector. Support SMC/PTAs networks to become financially independent and to function effectively, incl. planning and monitoring. Strengthen CSO capacity to facilitate participatory school management, f.ex. SPIP. Collaborate with donors to influence adequate GoG allocations for CBE interventions 46 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 9.0 LEARNING, INTEGRATED MONITORING AND EVALUATION 9.1 What to monitor? Monitoring and learning will be based on the TP logical framework, focusing on the objectives, results and indicators. A programme monitoring system will be developed to complement the IBIS 5 monitoring steps to guide programme monitoring at all levels of implementation. Emphasis will be laid on quality of reporting to inform learning widely in the programme, and to show adequate evidence, in both qualitative and quantitative terms, of progress in relation to outputs and outcomes. Building on this, existing reporting formats will be revised to be much more results-­‐oriented and respond to the broader systemic changes. 9.2 How to Monitor?: Levels and outputs Five levels of monitoring the TP are applicable in-­‐country annually. First, partners by themselves will monitor implementation within their intervention areas, together with programme beneficiaries to ascertain progress. Likewise, IBIS staff responsible for partnerships will undertake monitoring processes of PDP implementation with partners, usually on a quarterly basis. On a continuous basis, the Programme Director will assess programme strategy in alignment with contextual changes, and recommend strategy adaption where necessary to respond to changing dynamics. Partner forums and mid-­‐year reviews are organised and offer both IBIS and partners, opportunities for mutual learning and sharing of practice, and these could coincide with joint field visits. Additionally, Formative Monitoring Missions (FMM) will be conducted at least twice in the lifespan of the programme, to assess level of implementation and results, identify challenges and lessons, and provide recommendations for strengthening effectiveness of programme delivery. These different levels of monitoring are aimed at not only producing different reports that feed into overall annual reporting, but also to establish synergy and consistency between baseline data and programme progress and to inform re-­‐strategizing where possible, for leveraging achievement of objectives. 9.3 Learning Existing spaces for learning such as team meetings, mid-­‐year reviews and partner forums (which be held twice every year) will be used to promote continuous reflection on programme reports and strategies, assess what works and what needs improvement, to maximize results. These results will be captured in the annual report or the Organisational Performance System (OPS). A knowledge management system and process will be instituted to help capture, store, retrieve and share best practices across programme areas, and among staff and partners. Additionally, a virtual community of practice will be promoted to bring together staff and partners to regularly have exchanges and dialogue, with the main purpose of building knowledge around key themes under specific objectives of the programme. Working in collaboration with like-­‐minded education-­‐focused INGOs like 47 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 Action Aid, Plan Ghana and VSO, IBIS will explore learning festivals as an option to showcase and market strategies and models for dealing with challenges within the basic education sub-­‐sector. To make monitoring, evaluation and learning well situated and consolidated in the programme, one of the TP staff will be dedicated to monitoring and evaluation for the TP and related projects. 9.4 Benchmarking for monitoring and evaluation-­‐Baseline Survey A baseline survey will be commissioned at programme inception to provide quantitative and qualitative information about the situation in the intervention area. The aim is to establish a benchmark against which the performance and progress of the programme will be subsequently monitored and measured. 9.5 End of Programme Evaluation An end of programme evaluation will be carried out to provide overall assessment of the degree of programme achievement in relation to objectives and results of the programme. Typically, the evaluation would compare the baseline data to the end line data of each specific objective and results, in order to assess the overall changes attributable to IBIS and partner effort. 48 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 10. PROGRAMME AND HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT This TP will be led by a Management Team, comprising the Country Director (CD) and Programme Director (PD). The Management Team will provide strategic backstopping to the programme, helping the programme to regularly appraise its performance against programme objectives and results, and against changes in the broader development context, as well as provide direction on the relevant strategies for the effective and efficient management of the financial and human resources of the programme and to contribute to the attainment of the overall goals of the TP. The CD will have oversight responsibility for the implementation of the programme. S/he will coordinate the work of the programme within the broader IBIS Ghana framework and will assist with networking, synergy with the Governance programme and TP development. The overall day-­‐to-­‐day administrative, financial and programme management of the TP will be the responsibility of the PD who will be located in the Programme Office in Tamale. The PD will refer to the CD, facilitate linkages and synergies between and among the various themes and programme districts of the TP and with the other IBIS programmes, lead in negotiating partnerships, support in networking and advocacy at the national level and regional levels, and generally provide leadership in designing implementation strategies. The TP will be supported on the field level by a facilitation team. This will comprise an M&E Specialist (MES), Education Management Specialist (EMS) and Youth Empowerment Specialist (YES) all located in Tamale. There will also be an Education Policy & Advocacy Specialist (EPAS) who will be based in the Country Office in Accra. Among others, the EMS will support the programme with technical backstopping in pedagogical practices across the programme districts and with the partner Colleges of Education/teacher training colleges. The MES’ primary responsibility will be to support the programme with knowledge management. S/he will provide hands-­‐on support to the Programme Facilitators and partner organisations on systematic documentation, capturing evidence of programme results. Working closely with the Programme Development Advisor, EPAS, MES and Communications Officer will support the programme to find practical answers to the following key questions: How do we capture processes/models so that they can be replicated? How do we capture evidence of the desired change? How do we store evidence in such a way that it will be accessible to those who need it? How do we share with those who need to have it – IBIS staff, partners, duty bearers, donors, government agencies, other IBIS countries? How do we put it into the global IBIS knowledge system? How do we use it especially for our advocacy purposes? The PD and EPAS will be members of the Global Education Group. The EMS and EPAS will support the PD by providing quality assurance and coordination of key programme and donor reports emanating from staff and partners. It is expected that this will ease the work overload of the PD as a result of increased fundraising activities. Additionally, they will support in providing technical backstopping to the staff and partner organisations. The EPAS will serve as the focal person for the Education 49 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 Against Poverty and Inequality (EAPI) Programme in Ghana. S/he will support the PD in implementing and reporting on the agreed actions on EAPI Programme. Further, s/he will also support in fostering the programme’s linkages with other national level education stakeholders such as the Ministry of Education, CSO networks, think thanks and INGOs in its advocacy work in the area of Education Policy and Financing. The YES will support the TP (including the partners/collaborators) in achieving its objective on Youth Empowerment. The facilitation team will have two other members. These are Programme Facilitators located in Kpandai and Sawla to provide hands-­‐on support to partners to plan and carry out effective advocacy initiatives while providing them with the requisite Organisational Development support to enhance their organisational health. Owing to the planned increased scale and volume of TP work and the resultant need for increased facilitation at the programme level, TP will have local NGO partners, assigned to each of the programme districts. Generally, the programme facilitators in the programme districts will be responsible for strengthening relationships with partners and stakeholders, facilitating partner programme development and implementation in accordance with agreed methodologies, approaches and time schedules, monitoring of partners to ensure the efficient use of resources and reporting on partner performance in the programme districts. In accordance with the IBIS strategy, bi-­‐annual Partners’ Forums will held to review programme performance and to adopt strategies for enhanced performance. Furthermore, while TP will be engaged in advocacy at all levels, the National Policy Advisor will provide advice on TP’s advocacy agenda and lead national level policy advocacy. Finally, the finance and administrative staff of IBIS located in the Tamale Programme Office and Country Office in Accra will provide finance and administrative support to the implementation of the TP. (See Annex 1 for the organogram of the TP). As part of strategies for managing the TP, quarterly Team Meetings will be organised. This will be a platform for the PD and the facilitation team to reflect on programme achievements, learn lessons, identify challenges faced and building synergies across programme districts and between the Education and Governance TPs. Also, there is the need to build the capacity of staff in areas of competence required to effectively execute the thrust of the TP. It is therefore planned, that throughout the life of the TP, staff and partners will not only be trained in budget work, facilitation, rights-­‐based advocacy, financial management, monitoring and evaluation. Further, the training programmes will be accompanied with continuous mentoring and coaching on job, so that knowledge and skills acquired from the training programmes will be deepened with practice and reflections on the practice. 50 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 11. ASSUMPTIONS AND RISKS •
•
•
•
•
•
•
Government revenues will remain stable and will not impact negatively on education
budget allocation and spending;
National political priorities will remain stable, and committed to pro-poor education
interventions;
IBIS membership of Oxfam will not have any adverse effect on the design and
implementation of the TP;
Ebola will not spread to Ghana;
There will be political stability before, during and after 2016 general elections in Ghana;
The programme districts will remain peaceful /devoid of conflicts
Local political leadership will be committed to and interested in education co- operation.
51 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 11.1 TP RISK EVALUATION AND MANAGEMENT PLAN IBIS GHANA EDUCATION TP
RISK EVALUATION AND MANAGEMENT PLAN
Severity
Probability
High
Medium
Low
Risk Description Potential Adverse Impact
Severity
Probability
Risk Management
and Key Controls in Place
Responsibility
Means of m easurement
Activation Date
Review Deadline
OXFAM-­‐IBIS s trategic c oordination
IBIS-­‐OXFAM
senior mgnt.
IBIS-­‐OFXAM
country mgnt.
Senior mgnt.-­‐level meetings,
including Country Director
Country mgnt.-­‐level meetings,
including Education Programme Director
01.01.2015
31.12.2015
IBIS Ghana mgnt. To
monitor s ituation
IBIS Ghana mgnt.
01.01.2015
31.12.2015
01.01.2015
31.12.2015
01.01.2015
31.12.2015
1. OXFAM
1.1. I BIS priorities may come under pressure from OXFAM priorities
Change of i n-­‐country partner, programming a nd policy priorities
2. Ebola
Limited or no a ccess to a ffected or high-­‐
risk programme districts
2.1. Risk of a ctivities taking too l ong to implement by partners
Partner priorities, not l east those of district a uthorites, c hange
Follow official a dvise a nd health IBIS Ghana mgnt.
precautions for s taff
Expatriation or r elocation of s taff
Reprogramming to emergency relief based on SL/Liberia experiences to be c onsidered
Loss of i nstitutional memory
Improving on documentation of best practices
IBIS HO + IBIS Ghana mgnt.
3. Human Resource
3.1. Staff a ttrition within Delay i n programme i mplementation
IBIS i n Ghana
Increased operational c ost a ssociated with s taff r ecruitment
3.2. Staff a ttrition within Loss of i nstitutional memory
local partner Poor project s ustainability
organizations
Delay i n programme i mplementation
52 | P a g e Improving working c onditions of staff
Action plan for documentation i n place
IBIS Ghana mgnt.
Encouraging peer knowledge sharing a nd l earning
Supporting l ocal partner documentation of best practices
IBIS not to r ely on i ndividuals i n partner organizations.
Staff s atisfaction s urvey
Quarterly Education Team meetings
IBIS Education PD
and PFs
Partner quarterly r eports meet I BIS expectations
Knowledge management a nd expectations to quality of monitoring/reporting part of PDPs
Delay i n programme i mplementation
3.3 I nadequate c apacity Poor project s ustainability
of l ocal partner
Continuous PF mentoring s upport PDPs updated, i mplemented a nd r esults a ssesses on a Partner organizations
to partners
yearly basis.
01.01.2015
31.12.2015
01.01.2015
31.12.2015
01.01.2015
31.12.2015
Programme objectives a nd goal not achieved 4. Procedural 4.1 Local i mplementing partner not c omplying Missappropriation of funds
with r ules a nd Loss of trust a nd c onfidence i n the l ocal regulations a s partner
stipulated i
n t
he 5. Financial
Loss of c onfidence a nd i mage a bout the local partner
5.1 Risk of fraud
Loss of i ncome
Finance s taff monitoring visits
Programme s taff to s upport partner financial management
IBIS finance s taff
and PFs
Partner Assessment, or updated c f. need, prior to transfers
Signing of c ontracts with partners already i n place
IBIS
Multiple price s ourcing procurement Annual external (also preventative measure)
Partner financial r eports
Finance monitoring r eports
Partner a ssessment (PDP)
Signed partner c ontract (PDP)
Min. 3 i nvoices for procurement a bove 500 USD
Annual Audited Financial Report
6. Political
Change i n political l eadership a t national and MMDA l evels
6.1 Risk of c hange of government
MoUs with public i nstitutions (f.ex. GES a nd DAs)
IBIS PD
Responsive a dvocacy s trategy.
IBIS PD a nd Education Policy
& Advocacy Specialist
Policy c hanges
Poor participation of political l eadership in programme a ctivities, especially a t District l evel
Flexible programming through TP approach
53 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 Signed MoUs
01.01.2015
31.12.2015
Advocacy s trategy a pproved by CD
Thematic Programme a pproach followed
54 | P a g e 12. BUDGET AND BUDGET COMMENTS 13. ANNEXES 55 | P a g e ANNEX 1: TP ORGANOGRAM 2015-­‐2019 Country Director Country Office, Accra Education Programme Director Programme Office, Tamale M&E Specialist (also resp. Sagnarigu District) Programme Office, Tamale Education Management Specialist Programme Office, Tamale Education Policy & Advocacy Specialist Country Office, Accra Youth Empowerment Specialist Programme Office, Tamale Programme Development Advisor, Tamale Programme Office, Tamale Communication Officer, Tamale Programme Facilitator Sawla Satellite Office 56 | P a g e Programme Facilitator Kpandai Satellite Office ANNEX 2: TP + FUNDRAISED PROJECTS # Project/Prog. Name The Thematic Programme/TP 1 Duration/ Project Yrs 2015-­‐2019 Source of Fund DANIDA Location/ District Thematic Focus Sagnarigu, Kpandai and Sawla Advocate access to quality basic education, youth empowerment and education policy & financing To be determined 20 communities 8 com. 2 Christmas Calendar 2013-­‐2016 DANIDA/XXXXX East Gonja Access to education for out-­‐of-­‐
school children through the Wing School model 3 Hempel Wing School 2015-­‐2017 Hempel Saboba Access to education for out-­‐of-­‐
school children through the Wing School model 4 Child and Youth Initiative Jan-­‐Mar 2015 SIDA Bole, STK, East Gonja, Kpandai Advocate access to quality basic education, girls education and education policy & financing 6 BEQUIP Teacher Training Project Toms/DANIDA Business Partnership Additional HO/Frame funding for the Toms project 7 57 | P a g e 2013-­‐2015 EDUKANS 2013-­‐2015 DANIDA & Toms Confectionery (DK) 2014-­‐2015 DANIDA Northern Region, Upper East, Upper West, and Volta Region Bibiani, Sefwi Wiawso, Sefwi Akontombra, Atwima Mponua Promoting Active Learning through the use of ICT in Education. Improving quality of education to reduce child labour in the cocoa sector, and improving crop yield for cocoa farmers through farmer training # Communities/Schools same as the TP 14 schools + 1 Teacher Trg College 30 communities Staffing 3-­‐Drivers+ 5 Programme Staff 2 Drivers + 3 programme staff 1 Programme Staff same as the TP 1 Programme Staff 1 Driver + 1 programme staff 8 CBE Project 2013-­‐2015 DFID Bole, STK, East Gonja, Kpandai Access for out-­‐of-­‐school children through the 9-­‐month mother tongue literacy/School for Life model 100 communities 2 programme staff ANNEX 3: PROPOSED TP PARTNERS AND COLLABORATORS Name Brief Profile SEND Ghana SEND begins the implementation of its 5 year strategic plan in 2014, and commits to a vision of a ‘world where everyone’s rights and well-­‐being are guaranteed. The organization has programmes in health, education and agriculture with emphasis on monitoring pro-­‐poor policies and their financing. The organization is present at the national level, as well in 50 districts of 8 regions of Ghana-­‐
excluding Volta and Brong Ahafo regions. IMANI is a Centre for policy and education and engages in SO 3 scrutinizing government policies and their impacts on the development of the nation and its citizens. IMANI facilitates the Forum for Education Reform (FFER), made up of Ghanaian educationists who undertake research of key educational policies against their practices and influence necessary changes of education policies and programmes. The Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition SO 1 & 2& 3 (GNECC) is the national EFA coalition that advocates for the attainment of EFA goals in Ghana. The Coalition undertakes research on education policies implementation and tracks the utilization of education resources. It is IMANI GNECC 58 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 Specific Objective SO 1& 3 Work Focus -
-
-
Location National education budget analysis and budget advocacy District and school level education spending and tracking National and local National education policy advocacy National education budget analysis and advocacy National Education policy research Campaign and advocacy on access and quality National nationally based, and works through member organizations that are present in all the ten regions of Ghana Link Community Development LCD contributes to a vision of a ‘future where children have access to free, quality education enabling them to flourish and fulfil their potential’. The organization is well-­‐
known in Ghana for its innovative model on education governance which has helped in improving learning outcomes in Talensi and Nabdam Districts in the Upper East Region of Ghana. Its Programme Office is in Bolgatanga. Northern NORSAAC works to strengthen district and Sector Action community structures and empower women and on Awareness youth to effectively participate in decision-­‐making Centre and influence on how district and regional (NORSAAC) resources are allocated in terms of projects and services to the benefit of communities especially women and the youth. NORSAAC is a partner to the Governance Programme of IBIS in Ghana and works in Sagnarigu District Savana Signatures (SavSign) has a mission to equip youth, Savana women and vulnerable groups with ICT skills for personal SO 1&3 -
SO 1&2 -
-
education e.g inclusion of CBE into formal school system Education resource tracking Tracking teacher rationalization Capacity building for local CSOs in education District Monitoring of local education management Capacity building for SMC/PTAs on school governance... Community mobilisation to demand accountability; Girls and women empowerment; District Integrating ICT in Education, District & Regional 59 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 SO 1&2 -
Signatures and professional development through the innovative use of ICT and a vision of a society where relevant information, knowledge and skills for development are enhanced by equal access to and use of ICT. SavSign prides itself to be the only organisation in Northern and the Volta region of Ghana that is focused on the use of ICTs for development. In education, Savana Signatures is implementing the Integration of ICTs in Education in 15 schools in the Northern region and in 2 schools in the Volta region. The organisation is also implementing the World Starts with Me programme in 18 schools across the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions. The organisation has two offices: one in Tamale, Northern region and the other in Ho in the Volta region. SavSign is presently the contact organisation of the Connect for Change (C4C) Education Alliance in Ghana. GILLBT Ghana Institute of Linguistics, Literacy and Bible Translation (GILLBT)’s core business is developing the Orthography of local languages in Ghana and now involved in standardising the orthography of some of the languages found to have different dialects. Also GILLBT is an expert institution in language translation. They have been engaged severally to translate text from English into various mother tongue for instruction in school etc. GILLBT was officially engaged by Crown Agents to do translations for the CBE programme. 60 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 -
-
-
Youth Empowerment, Gender and Social Inclusion Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights with a focus on ICT for Development as the cross cutting theme. Materials development (primers, textbooks, teaching aids, supplementary readers) for use in schools. Platforms for Language experts (from GES, University, CSO etc) District and National Shifts in GILLBT’s work: GILLBT’s mission and strategy moved from focusing on adult literacy to effecting change within the formal school system through teachers’ professional development focusing on capacity to teach using the mother tongue as medium of instruction; build capacity of SMC/PTA to appreciate their roles and buy-­‐into the use of mother tongue as a medium of instruction • Now involved in CBE in selected districts and integrating learning into the formal school system. Centre for Active Learning and Integrated Development SO 1 & 2 (CALID) is commits to the promotion of quality life of the poor and marginalized, particularly women and children by expanding their capabilities to claim their rights , maximize their potentials and provide for the wellbeing of its members. CALID operates in the northern region, and is one of the IBIS governance programme partners •
CALID -
-
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CHOICE CHOICE is a local organization involved in education research and advocacy, capacity strengthening for community groups, and information dissemination. The organization is operational in the East Gonja and Kpandai 61 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 -
to dialogue on the appropriate use of mother tongue in schools etc. Research on quality of education in district and school Advocacy for financing DEO’ monitoring and supervision functions Community mobilization and facilitating gender awareness in communities Advocacy for gender sensitive teaching practices and school environment District District districts of the Northern region Northern Network for Education Development (NNED) -
NNED is a network of almost 100 CSOs in the education SO 1, 2 & 3 sector based in Northern Ghana and committed to highlighting and advocating a reversal of the educational challenges confronting the area, which lags behind the rest of Ghana by over 100 years of development and education. NNED has developed a coalition of NGOs engaged in educational development and provides a platform for dialogue in the three regions of the North of Ghana. -­‐
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Collaborators Ghana The Ghana Education Service, by Act 506 is responsible for SO 1 Education the implementation of national policies and programmes Service related to pre to tertiary education. GES, at both national and local levels are considered collaborators of this TP and NOT as partners. 62 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 Strengthening of SMCs/PTAs Engages in Education policy research, Campaign and advocacy on access to quality basic quality. Engages in capacity building for local CSOs in education work including resource tracking. Facilitates advocacy and coalition building among local CSOs at district and regional levels. Monitors NGO and civil society work in education to ensure better coordination of activities. Collaboration with GES will be in the areas of; - Testing and modelling of innovative teach approaches, NNED is located in Northern Ghana, and links up with the National Education Coalition (GNECC) for national level advocacy. National and Local Colleges of Education The Colleges of Education train teachers basically, and are considered collaborators as well. SO 1 National Youth Authority NYA is the coordinating authority of policies and programmes related to youth, including their skills development, employment and involvement in nation building at large. SO 2 63 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 mother tongue instruction, ICTs - Building capacities for planning and monitoring of educational services-­‐ PRESET, INSET at district and school levels. Collaboration with Regional and local Colleges of Education will be in the areas of; - Developing models on quality education, such as mother tongue and participatory/gen
der sensitive methods of teaching Collaboration with the National NYA will include - Support for the harmonization of different and many youth development and INGOs, including ActionAid, VSO Towards harmonization, collaboration will be fostered with other INGOs that support IBIS’s partners 64 | P a g e E d u c a t i o n f o r C h a n g e 2 0 1 5 -­‐ 2 0 1 9 SO 1&2&3 training interventions Joint advocacy on themes National and Local related to the 3 specific objectives