Our Work

Secondary Education Reform (Leaders in Teaching)

  • Project Amount

    $53 million
    (source: Mastercard Foundation)

  • Project Duration

    April 2023 to March 2028

  • Partners

    • Mastercard Foundation, • Government of Ghana • IEPA • The 5 Public Universities (UCC, UEW, UoG, KNUST, UDS) • AAMUSTED • ESSA • CEGENSA • GSET • Lead for Ghana • STiR Education • Education Commission

The Secondary Education Reform (Leaders in Teaching) programme is a Government of Ghana programme implemented and led by the Ministry of Education (MoE) and the Ghana Education Service (GES) in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation.

The goal of Leaders in Teaching (LiT) Ghana is to improve the quality of teaching and learning in Ghanaian secondary education institutions (Senior High Schools (SHS), Senior High Technical Schools (SHTS) and Technical Institutes (TIs)) so that all young people have the 21st Century Skills and competencies needed for lifelong learning, employability and adult life. This goal will be achieved through four objectives:

  1. LEAD PILLAR: To improve the leadership and management of SHS, SHTS and TIs so that School Boards and Leadership teams oversee effective learning-focused institutions with School Improvement Plans, conducting robust learning assessments and using accurate, timely and relevant data to inform decision-making and ensure effective quality assurance and oversight of all SHS, SHTS, TIs and teacher education institutions through a performance management and accountability system linking classroom, school, district, regional and national levels.
  2. TRAIN PILLAR: To improve the quality and relevance of pre-service and in-service teacher education, so that all teachers in SHS, SHTS and TIs are delivering the new secondary education curriculum and adhering to the National Teachers’ Standards.
  3. RECRUIT PILLAR: To attract, recruit and retain quality teachers for secondary education institutions with a particular focus on the recruitment of women and addressing staffing issues in rural areas.
  4. MOTIVATE: To improve teacher motivation and elevate the status and respect for the profession.

The approach is also closely aligned to Mastercard Foundation’s Ghana Country Strategy, which focuses on promoting and expanding employment opportunities for young men and young women, enabling three million Ghanaians to access dignified and fulfilling work by 2030. LiT Ghana will make a significant and sustained contribution towards achieving this goal in three major ways:

  1. Transforming Ghana’s secondary education system so that 2,900,000 secondary education graduates have the 21st Century Skills and Competencies required to succeed in work and further study (with millions more benefitting from the measures put in place by LiT after 2028);
  2. Strengthening the skills of over 160,000 existing in-service teachers (51,800 of whom are female)
  • Enhancing linkages and support networks between 731 secondary education institutions (Senior High Schools (SHSs), Senior High Technical Schools (SHTSs) and Technical Institutes (TIs) and employers to improve careers advice and guidance; and
  1. Enabling 40,000 young people to make productive use of their National Service year, combining it with a new Postgraduate qualification in teaching leading directly to secure employment within an SHS, SHTS or TI.
  2. Ensuring at least 67,000 (at least 60 percent of whom are female teachers) young people will access dignified and fulfilling work and an improved education system that ensures many more youth enter productive work beyond the life of the program
  3. T-TEL will work with 14 institutional implementing partners to deliver the activities in LiT. These partners include tertiary education institutions, NGOs and the private sector. Each partner brings their own expertise to contribute towards LiT delivery as set out in the diagram below. Their expertise will ensure that LiT is aligned with national and international best practice and is underpinned by the highest quality evidence base possible.

In addition to these 14 implementing partners, LiT will work to support 10 national government agencies, 16 Regional Education Offices (REOs) and 731 Senior High Schools (SHS), Senior High Technical Schools (SHTS) and Technical Institutes (TIs) to implement the ambitious national reforms. T-TEL will work in partnership with these agencies and institutions to ensure that LiT is fully aligned with the Ministry of Education and agency priorities. These agencies include: Ghana Education Service (GES) at national, regional, district and school level, Ghana Technical & Vocational Education and Training Service (TVET Service), National Teaching Council (NTC), National Schools Inspectorate Authority (NaSIA), National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), National Service Scheme (NSS), Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and critical stakeholders such as the Conference of Principals of Colleges of Education (PRINCOF), Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS),  teacher unions, Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) and other employers representative bodies.

Why is LiT needed now?

T-TEL, in partnership with the Ministry of Education and other national agencies have spent the past twenty months implementing the Mastercard Foundation’s Transforming Senior High School Education, Teaching & Learning (T-SHEL) Phase One program. This two-year program which ended in January 2023 has laid the foundations for transformative change in Ghana’s secondary education system through a number of measures including:

  • The development of a Secondary Education Policy which sets out Ghana’s vision and plans to ensure that all secondary education graduates are equipped with “the 21 Century Skills and competencies needed for lifelong learning, employability and adult life”
  • The development of a new secondary education curriculum which, for the first time in Ghana, has been developed in a highly collaborative process involving a wide range of stakeholders including employers, unions and tertiary education institutions
  • The development of accredited, practically focused educational leadership programmes by Ghanaian universities using a nationally approved and agreed framework
  • The piloting of a range of school improvement measures in 12 challenged secondary education institutions in partnership with GES through the use of the participatory ‘Managing for Learning’ approach which has enhanced accountability and support by creating a monthly platform for GES to scrutinise school progress
  • The introduction of weekly Professional Learning Community (PLC) sessions with structured materials in SHS, SHTS and TIs where teachers come together to help ensure that they are meeting the National Teachers’ Standards (NTS) and delivering the curriculum as expected

LiT will ensure that the new secondary education curriculum is understood and taught effectively across all schools, increasing the proportion of teachers meeting the National Teachers’ Standards and ensuring that young people who complete secondary education have proficiency in the 21st Century Skills required to succeed in further studies and the world of work.