The Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, has announced that the government is reprioritising basic education, particularly foundation learning.
He said the government recognised that foundational learning was key to future success, not just academic success, but the personal and professional development of the young ones.
“It is our faith that if the child gets it right at six, we can predict how the next 18 years will be for that child.
“That is why we are particularly grateful for this support,” Mr Iddrisu stated at the signing of a partnership agreement with an educational consortium and other partners to provide a $118.8 million grant to support foundational learning.
The partnership allows System Change Architecture for Learning Excellence (SCALE) and other partners that form a consortium to provide $40 million, the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) would bring $40 million, a multi-donor trust fund bringing $7.4 million, with GPE systems transformation grant of $31.4 million.
Focus
Mr Iddrisu gave the assurance that the government would emphasise issues relating to social and emotional learning based on some evidence that had been shared with the ministry.
“Government is taking the necessary and appropriate steps to improve the phonological awareness of learners and the phonetics associated with it.
“Based on that, we have come to a sense that even the use of the local language of the child can aid foundational skills building and can support it. That is why we consider the initiative of SCALE significant for us as a country,” the minister stated.
Mr Iddrisu said the government had positioned itself to drive the next phase of Ghana’s education reforms, anchored on resilience, equity, quality, innovation, and more importantly, on inclusivity, and added that “This project, SCALE, will scale up inclusivity for the Ghanaian learner.”
Contribution of partners
The minister acknowledged that over the past years, GPE had served as a critical driver of education development in low and middle-income countries.
“Ghana has been a proud beneficiary of your support since 2017. And to the Jacobs Foundation, thanks for the leadership that you have provided,” he said.
Mr Iddrisu said the support was not just about financial investment, it was the historic shift to deliver education with purpose and with SCALE and measurable impact, as it was with GALLOP.
He gave the assurance that the government of Ghana stood fully committed to deepening collaboration with the SCALE funders, the World Bank, and the Global Partnership for Education Secretariat to ensure the successful implementation of GALLOP II, and to realise the full vision of our education strategic plan.
