Basic education in Ghana : progress and problems

This four month project was designed to combine achievement and school resource information into a single data base and assess the degree to which particular resources were associated with better performance. Background documents were studied to assess the current context of education in Ghana. Interviews with teachers, head teachers, district education officers and other stakeholders were conducted to gauge their views on the source of the problems and possible solutions. Two districts were chosen as case studies for a more in depth analysis. The new data base provided a district-by-district snapshot of achievement and school input improvements over time by comparison to national averages for each of the 138 districts in the country. The results of the data analyses suggest that the quality of basic education is at a cross roads. The system will require new resources, including those from non-government sources. Improving student achievement will also require that new resources are allocated in new ways. Suggestions are made to USAID, other development partners and to the GOG on the content of these new directions. (Author abstract)