By: Kingsley Nana Buadu
As the number of students receiving grade A in English Language steadily increased from 8 in 2013 to over 200 in 2017 at Aburi Girls’ Senior High School (SHS), an all-girls high school in Ghana, it was important to understand the experiences of the learners that led to such success, so they can be shared with others. While arguably many factors contributed to the success, during the 2013-2017 period, teachers at Aburi Girls’ SHS received multiple professional development training and support programmes from Institute of Teacher Education and Development (INTED), LBG. Established in Ghana in 2011 with a vision of a good educational foundation for West African youth, INTED advocates for inclusive and supportive educational environments that empower all youth, especially the marginalized.
Since its founding, INTED has supported more than 5,000 teachers and leaders in over 200 schools, meaningfully improving educational outcomes through targeted teacher development programmes.
Teachers from Aburi Girls, as an example, partook in INTED’s Master Fellows Programme to be peer-trainers, the School Specific Programme that trained teachers to work collaboratively within a department, and the Leading Girls’ Learning Programme that supports teachers to improve the classroom experiences and learning outcomes for students, while addressing biases against females.
As we celebrate the International Day of the Girl, we look at the experiences of girl students at Oda Senior High School and Answaru-Deen Islamic Basic School, as we acknowledge the critical role of teachers in supporting learners, particularly girls.
One of INTED’s initiatives, the Leading Girls’ Learning Programme (LGLP) addresses challenges faced by female students and teachers at the Senior High School level in Ghana. In Ghana and in most parts of Africa, girls have historically under-performed in subjects like Mathematics and Science at the secondary level of education compared to boys, limiting their opportunities for Higher Education and careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). The LGLP works at changing this narrative by equipping teachers, majority females, with effective strategies to serve as role models, improve teaching practices, boost student engagement and academic performance, and empower females to take on leadership roles within their schools. The LGLP was piloted during the 2020/2021 academic year with twelve schools including Oda Senior High School, where similar to the other schools, twenty (20) teachers, mostly female, were trained. This pilot evaluation (as shown in this report) showed growing interest and significant academic performance of students in Science, Mathematics, and other subjects they previously found challenging due to previous limited support from their teachers.
The stories of students of LGLP beneficiary teachers, including Christabel Aboagye and Alberta Danso from Oda Senior High School (SHS) palpably show the impact of appropriate instructional strategies in the classroom. It is noteworthy that these students are only two of over 18,750 underperforming learners targeted under the LGLP. Christabel, who struggled with the Science subject before the introduction of INTED’s LGLP intervention to Oda SHS in 2020/21, saw her performance significantly improve after her teacher’s participation. As stated by Christabel, “Previously in my first year, I was having E8 and D7 and C6 in science, but I had improved to B2 in last semester’s [second year] exams.” She continued “My science teacher has been using new strategies and methodologies in his teaching which has helped us a lot. He now pauses during teaching for us to ask questions, he also asks us questions for us to think, discuss, and give out answers,” Christabel highlighted in her story the difference she saw in the practices of her teacher before and after the LGLP. After her third year, Christabel shared her performance in the WASSCE exam, which showed continued improvement.
Alberta Danso and her classmates faced similar challenges in Social Studies, one of the four core subjects that senior high school students like Alberta need to pass to progress to the tertiary level. Before INTED’s intervention, Alberta’s teacher, Mr. Dennis Kwapong predominantly used the lecture approach that did not engage students, making the subject less interesting and alienating to Alberta and her peers. After participating in INTED’s LGLP that promoted student-centered teaching techniques such as role playing, group presentations, and effective questioning, the story took a different turn. Alberta noted that her teacher adopted new teaching methods that significantly improved her interest in and understanding of the subject, leading to enhanced problem-solving skills and academic performance. Alberta shared her experience and her academic performance. As a testament to one of the LGLP objectives to attract more female teachers, both Christabel and Alberta are inspired by the difference their teacher made and are looking for financial support to train to be teachers to transform underperforming learners.
Kumi Christie Kyerewaa, also an Oda SHS student, highlighted how the “exit card” strategy used by her teacher after the LGLP allowed her and her peers to provide quick and timely feedback after lessons, ensuring that their learning gaps were identified and met. Kumi shares this and other experiences in this video that led to her strong academic improvement. Christie gained admission and is currently at the University of Ghana (Legon) pursuing a four-year degree programme in Linguistics where she specializes in Spanish and French. She dreams of giving back to her country by serving at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as an Administrator, once she completes university. Importantly, girls at Oda SHS started to share their dreams and aspirations, based on their new confidence and improving performances. The pedagogical approaches from their teachers following INTED’s LGLP not only improved academic outcomes in a more inclusive learning environment for female students that were historically and culturally marginalized, but also improved the creative confidence of the girls at the pivotal adolescent period in their lives.
The notion of building creative confidence is equally important at earlier education levels. During the 2022/23 academic year, INTED piloted the School Specific Programme (SSP) on Strategic Observation And Reflection (SOAR)®️ Framework, a new pedagogical framework to support teachers to use a learner-centered approach to improve disciplinary discussions and reading skills. Ms. Barikisu Suleiman, a primary school teacher at Answaru-Deen Islamic Basic School, one of the 49 basic schools in the pilot, trained to be a trainer of her peers. She thoroughly immersed herself in the Master Fellows Programme, a professional learning community of over 65 teacher trainers, improving her own classroom practices as well as training and supporting over fifty teachers to do the same (Amporful et al., 2024). Her impact on students was unmistakable – Ruwaida Iddrisu, one of her female students, had such an impactful experience to share. Prior to the training programme, Ms. Suleiman confirmed that her students generally found subjects such as Mathematics, Science, English, and History challenging, a similar situation to that in Senior High Schools. Ruwaida was described as an average student and in previous interactions, she wished Mathematics could be scrapped off the Basic School curriculum, but after Ms. Barikisu introduces new teaching approaches from INTED in class over the course of the first three school terms after her programme, Ruwaida has come to love mathematics, as she has adopted simple ways of relating to everyday life. Today, Ruwaida is helping her classmates with mathematics and enjoys working in small groups where she can share ideas with her friends, something she learnt from her teacher.
Zainab Habibu is one of Ms. Suleiman’s female students who had a poor record in Science before her teacher participated in INTED’s SSP. Her performance in Science after Ms. Suleiman’s intervention improved significantly. During a monitoring visit from INTED, Zainab shared that “My teacher uses local items to represent what I see in my textbooks,” and has since shared other classroom experiences that have changed her approach to learning. Zainab now enjoys doing science activities with her colleagues such as planting seeds and observing their growth. English Language, the official language in Ghana and a number of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, poses a challenge to a number of students at the foundational level.
Fatimatu Abdul Wahab is one of the female students in Ms. Suleiman’s class. She could speak English a little, but struggled more with reading and writing. Today, she boldly describes English as her best subject after experiencing diverse peer-to-peer reading and writing strategies. With INTED’s Teacher Professional Development Training Programme, Ms. Suleiman has made Fatimatu one of the happiest students in the school. Fatimatu’s newly found hobby is writing and telling short stories to her friends during break time. The National Teaching Council, the Government agency that regulates teachers, took notice, recognizing Ms. Suleiman as 2023 Ghana Teacher Prize winner in the primary category.
Through programmes like the LGLP and SSP, the capacity of teachers is being built to equip their learners with the interest, skills, and confidence to improve in the classroom and pursue opportunities in higher learning. The experiences shared by students of teachers from Aburi Girls SHS, Oda SHS, and Answaru-Deen Islamic Basic School are similar to those from over 5,000 teachers in over 200 schools with multiple intervention programmes such as the Master Fellows Programme, the Leading Girls’ Learning Programme, and the School Specific Programmes being implemented by INTED with the kind support of Ministry of Education and donor partners.
