The Ghana Education Reform Agenda

The Ghana Education Reform Agenda is an important long-term education agenda of the government of Ghana that has a birds view of the future face of education targets to be achieved via strategic planning and implementation.

The Government of Ghana initiated some key education reforms to transform teaching and learning and improve educational outcomes under the Education Strategic Plan (ESP 2018-2030) which was approved by cabinet in November 2018. These reforms are expected to contribute to the goals of the ESP and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 4) and lead to the improvement of learning outcomes, especially at the pre-tertiary levels. The three main priorities of the education reforms are: Improved learning outcomes, enhanced accountability and equity at all levels of the education sector.

The main objective for embarking on these key reforms is to make our educational system relevant to changing national development priorities and renewed goals and aspirations. It is also to ensure that our educational system adjusts to context and time; as well as advancement in technologies, industry, creativity and knowledge economy. These new reform initiatives exist to provide clear performance standards to guide teaching, learning, assessment and grading of students. The reforms will professionalize teaching and ensure standards.

The Ministry of Education is coordinating the implementation of these reform initiatives through the National Education Reform Secretariat to ensure alignment and coordination of reforms within the framework of the Education Strategic Plan. The secretariat is also to ensure accountability for each reform owner, build capacity of reform owners and identify and resolve blockages, obstacles and bottlenecks to the implementation of the reforms.

The 12 Key Ghana Education Reform Agenda Areas

Policy on Teacher Education Reforms led by the NCTE through T-TEL
Pre-Tertiary Curriculum Reform through NaCCA
Legal, Institutional and Regulatory Reforms
Tertiary Education Reform
Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Reforms
Operationalization of Pre-Tertiary Teacher Professional and Management Development Framework through NTC
Introduction of a new school supervision and inspection system through NIB
Basic Education Decentralisation Reform
Ghana Partnership School
GES Institutional and Human Resource Reform
ICT in Education Reforms
Secondary Education Reform (4 Pillars)

These reforms are aligned to the Education Strategic Plan (2018-2030), and are designed to strengthen the sector institutions to overcome their capacity gaps, and accomplish the goals outlined in the Education Sector Plan. The end goals of these reforms are “to deliver quality education service at all levels that will equip learners in educational institutions with the skills, competencies and awareness that would make them functional citizens who can contribute to the attainment of the national development goals.”

The Ministry of Education intends to deliver these reform initiatives through a coordinated approach and is expected to create linkages and co-dependencies between the different sub-sectors for the successful implementation of the ESP. The National Education Reform Secretariat (NERS) was therefore set up and charged with the mandate to ensure that these reforms are not just delivered at a national level (through the production of a curriculum or legal and policy documents) but that they are effectively implemented throughout the system so that they have a positive impact on learning outcomes in schools.

Source: Ministry of Education, Ghana