Some Ghanaian parents are sending their kids to private schools like the Omega School chain.

Despite the rise in school attendance in Ghana, around 440,000 kids are still out-of-school (61 million globally). The United Nations estimates it would cost $16 billion a year to get these out-of-school kids into class by 2015 to reach the Millennium Development Goal 2. Here in Ghana, while the government is expanding access, some parents are opting to pay for their children's education. In fact, it is estimated that private schools make up a third of total schools. DFID Ghana is looking to understand more about the private sector, and we are financing the World Bank (Harry Patrinos) to carry out "Education Markets" analysis of low fee private schools.Whatever one's ideological stance is on the role of private schools (read the BBC article which sees Sir Michael Barber go head to head with Professor Keith Lewin debating this very issue), we can't ignore the fact that poor families are opting out of the government system. I went to visit Ghana's Omega Schools, a chain of low fee private schools which last year received financing from Pearson's Affordable Learning Fund. Pearson's Affordable Learning Fund is chaired by Sir Michael Barber who was once head of Tony Blair's Service Delivery Unit.

I just met with Sir Michael on a recent trip he made to Ghana checking up on his investment. He seemed pleased with the progress that the Omega Schools are making and would like to explore vouchers – where parents are given vouchers to spend on education. He is actually working with DFID Pakistan in Punjab on a programme that provides vouchers for poor families whose children attend private schools, providing free education to 1.1 million children in 2,233 schools.

The view of the surrounding area in which an Omega School is located.

The Omega Schools are located in Kasoa, on the outskirts of Accra – a lively and hectic place, home to migrants from Ghana's poorest regions, working-class Ghanaians and anyone trying to eek out a living in Ghana's capital. Kayayei girls sell goods on their heads, from plantain chips to lobsters line up at car windows, while bus drivers gather up passengers to brave the traffic into the centre and young boys hustling their car-washing skills at the traffic lights.

I met with Omega's CEO, Ken Donkoh in their Kasoa HQ who told me about their plans, and took me around 3 of the low fee private schools.

"Our plan is to scale-up to more than 200 schools in the next 5 years. Currently we have 20 schools in Ghana with 12,000 students and we are adding 20 new schools to the chain this September. We will then add about 35 more schools every year. We want to take the model to other countries in West Africa, and we are now in Sierra Leone and will be looking for opportunities in Nigeria and Liberia.”

According to observers, Omega has been successful because of the all-inclusive (no hidden fee) daily fee model as it fits well within the earning pattern of the parents who are mostly informal workers, and don't always get a regular salary. Just as "pay-as-you-go" was an instant success for the mobile phone sector, it seems to work for Omega Schools.

Ken calls it "pay-as-you-learn" and emphasizes that:

"It drives us to be the best we can be. We have to be accountable to the parents on a daily basis. If we don't do a good job today, don't expect the children to come the next day. I love the discipline this brings to everybody –teachers and the management on their toes."

Another novel component of the Omega package seems to be the consistent tracking of how well students are doing. Ken explains:

"We track the progress of each student using 7 different tests annually. There are mid-term formative assessments per year which ensures that we are able establish how well the children are receiving our curriculum – then we do remedial teacher training and teaching to fill in the gaps. Three end-of term tests track 'progress' and an annual test compares Omega schools with, government and other private schools."

The button that contains the data that tracks the students' progress

I became curious to know more about the button sewn onto students' shirts. Ken explains that this button acts as a tracking device and once swiped can provide access to the students' academic records. A teacher confirms that they use the data on the button to text a student's parents how well his/her child is doing in each class.

Although the Omega's approach does look promising, the evidence base on low fee private schools is still weak, and there are more questions than answers. Professor Keith Lewin does make a valid point that where there has been growth in low-price private school numbers, it is often because of specific circumstances, such as where a high level of migration into cities has not been matched by an expansion in public services, and it is still impossible to tell whether low fee private schools or public schools are better, because the research produces contradictory results.

This is exactly why DFID is supporting the World Bank's "Education Markets" study to develop a better understanding of the policy and operating environment in which the private education sector currently work, and obtain more data on the role of private schools for the poor.

Ken is proud of the unique model of Omega schools.

"The lesson plans are already developed – and the lessons are also scripted which allows Omega to hire high school graduates as teachers. These high school graduates are young, passionate and energetic – and they want to make a difference." Critics have pointed out that the fees are so low because they are deliberately exploiting secondary school leavers without jobs who are willing to work below the minimum wage.

So how did Ken become involved in the Omega Schools?

Omega School students are eager to learn!

"Maybe I was just lucky, because out of a class of 80 students in junior high school (morning and afternoon shifts) only 5 of us made it to senior high school. While I was studying for my MBA at GIMPA , I encountered James Tooley's research since I was searching for solutions to help my elder sister who was running a low fee private school. I came to the conclusion that (given the chicken-and-egg dilemma that private schools face) the most effective way to improve quality and drive down fees was to build a chain. I sent James Tooley my business plan – with a provocative note, "if you really believe in your research, can we turn this into a business?" After a number of failed attempts to secure financial backing, we finally said enough is enough, let's start on our own". In 2009 we opened our first 2 schools filled to capacity on the first week of opening. One of the schools had as many as 350 students on a waiting list. In 2 years we grew to 10 schools, broke even and caught the attention of Pearson who invested in us."

DFID is continuing to research the role of private schools. Our senior education advisor in India, Colin Bangay and Michael Latham have been researching private schools in India and looked in-depth at 'Gyan Shala', an innovative low cost education programme operating in the slums of Gujarat and Bihar. They argue for a better understanding of the dynamic between the public and private schools. Further, DFID is supporting Results for Development Institute (R4D) to launch the Center for Education Innovations which will be an online platform identifying, analysing, and connecting non-state education innovations.

I would be interested to hear what you think on the role of private schools and whether DFID should be investing in them. Do let me know what you think and add your comments here!

Abubakari Sulemana Hafiz tells me about his journey from being an out-of-school child to now studying at the University of Ghana

Abubakari Sulemana Hafiz has a lot to be proud of. He is one of 11 undergraduates who are part of Ghana's first cohort of veterinary science students at the University of Ghana. This achievement is even more impressive as until he was 14 years old, he had not been to school. Abubakari comes from Kumbungu district in Ghana's northern region where many families simply cannot afford the opportunity costs of sending their children to school. While Ghana has been experiencing high growth rates, the north has been left behind - over the past decade the number of poor declined by 2.5 million in the south while it grew by 0.9 million in areas in the north. Abubakari explains that his story is common.

"Children are kept out of school so they can work to help support their families – selling goods at the market, doing manual labour on the farms, or rearing cattle."

Until School for Life came to Abubakari's village in 1999, he was living with his cousin and looking after their farm. School for Life is a NGO that provides an accelerated learning programme for out-of-school children, known as complementary basic education. Students attend three-hour classes, 5 days a week for 9 months, taught in their mother-tongue language. Founded in 1995, School for Life has been very successful at getting out-of-school children into school. Part of their success centres around the strong community involvement. School for Life offers communities the chance to run the 9-month programme, by appointing community members to form a school management committee.

"In every community where we start School for Life, we hold a large discussion forum where we explain what we do. If the community wants to start a programme, they go onto elect a committee of 3 women and 2 men who oversee the programme," the deputy manager, Mr Braimah explains.

School for Life deliberately seeks to get women to take a leading role on the committee, and ensures that over 50% of the out-of-school children who enrol are girls. This is because more than half of girls in these communities are not in school (see my earlier blog post on our partnership with Camfed).

Abubakari grew up in a village like this in Ghana's northern region

The committee is then tasked with ensuring that the children who signed up attend the classes, parents are kept informed of their children's progress and the community gains a stronger understanding of the value of education. The strong linkage with the community does not stop there. The teachers, known as facilitators, are also recruited from the same communities in which they teach. The community has to appoint a facilitator who is trained by School for Life to teach the class and commits to personally ensuring that all the enrolled children attend.

The founder of School for Life, Mr Saaka, explains that the success of the programme very much stems from the fact that communities trust the people running the programme.

"Having a facilitator from the community, promotes high retention rates, excellent attendance, and quality engagement with parents and the community. The facilitator will go around to an individual family's house if their child is not coming to the classes. There is also flexible school timetabling that allows children to support their family's need to earn an income during the morning."

School for Life has really worked to reduce the number of out-of-school children, currently at around, 500,000. From 1998 to 2007, it educated more than 85,000 children aged between 8 and 14. More than 90% of these students graduated from the program, and around 70% were integrated into the formal school system. In 2006, a 2 -3% increase in the national enrolment rate was attributed to the School for Life programme.

Abubakari commends School for Life and the Ghana Education Service's close partnership to enable graduates to transition to regular school on completing the programme. Usually graduates enter into class 4 of primary school.

"Straight after, I went to Kumbungu primary school. My teacher knew that I was a School for Life graduate and really supported me to improve my English skills, and recognised that I enjoyed Maths. She was the one who pushed me to enter into the northern region's Science and Maths competition where I came first. That really gave me the confidence to continue my education and go onto to senior high school, and become the first person in my family to go to university."

A community facilitator from School for Life teaches the out-of-school children in his community how to read and write

DFID Ghana first started supporting School for Life in 2008. Since then, we have supported 38,000 out-of-school children to go through this second-chance learning programme. Based on the strong results, DFID Ghana is now supporting a scale-up of complementary basic education to reach 120,000 out-of-school children by replicating the School for Life model and partnering with other NGO-providers.

In addition to providing access, the programme will support the Government of Ghana to move the out-of-school agenda forward. The Chief Director (most senior civil servant in the Ministry of Education) Enoch Kobbinah, will chair the taskforce on complementary basic education. DFID will help strengthen the government's ability to procure complementary basic education programmes through non-state providers and provide advice on the draft policy. We have also provided support to refine the existing package of government-approved teaching and learning materials. The well-known Indian NGO, Pratham has been sharing ideas and collaborating with School for Life to improve the teaching and learning materials. There will also be a large research strand to the programme: a longitudinal study will be carried out to track the out-of-school children supported over a ten-year period.  The study will fill in the evidence gap on out-of-school children looking, assessing how much they learn and the longer-term value for money of complementary basic education programmes.

Formerly out-of-school children are eager to learn

For Abubakari there is no doubt that School for Life's complementary basic education programme has changed his life.

"It is hard to believe that I am now living in the capital, and studying veterinary science. I really hope to be able to help increase Ghana's agricultural productivity, so we can grow more and do that more efficiently, and rear healthier animals. This will also help poor families, like mine, to be able to send their children to school."

“We happy and we thank you Nana, We are happy and we thank you Nana, We are happy and we thank you Nana. Free senior high school, quality education and teachers. Mothers and fathers, aunties and uncles, grandmas and grandpas, help the children of Ghana – by voting for Nana.”

This was the jingle sang by children blasting out on radios around Ghana in the run-up to the election earlier this month.

Education was really at the forefront of the election campaign and remains so in this transition period - before the President John Mahama is inaugurated on January 7th. What was positive was that although both main parties were united in singing out education as a priority, they had different policies to address the issue - the New Patriotic Party was promising free senior high school while the National Democratic Congress campaigned for "quality basic education."

With one of the fastest growing economies in the world (around 8% last year), it is no wonder that politicians are addressing ordinary Ghanaians' concerns as they are looking for education as the means to ensure that growth benefits all.

Education was a top priority during the elections. Picture: Nicole Goldstein

Earlier this month, as Ghanaians went out to vote (see my colleague, Henry Donati's blog posts), I spoke to men and women at polling stations in the Greater Accra area. In the Selim Crèche School, a taxi driver called Kwame said: "I want my children to have a bright future and education will help them. The current education system is lacking - teachers don't turn up for work and school buildings are in disrepair. We need to make sure that our children have a decent education that helps them get jobs."

Indeed, surveys point out that on any given day, around 27% of teachers are absent. Reasons for teacher absenteeism are most commonly associated with illness, collection of pay, attending funerals and prayers, farming or taking on other jobs simultaneously. One of the 35,000 electoral commission officers echoed similar views: "The government that comes in must sort out the education system - and get teachers to turn up for what they are paid for and make sure our children are learning."

Ghanaians cast their votes in a campaign in which education has dominated. Picture: Nicole Goldstein/DFID Ghana

The incumbent party, the National Democratic Congress, won 50.7% of the vote in the presidential election. They are spot on in their electoral pledge that quality education for all is a right - not a promise. And they have a hard job now ahead of them to live up to their pledge. Indeed over the past decade the government has done a good job at widening access, primary enrolment has almost doubled from 2.6m in 2001-02 to 4.5m in 2011-12. Over the past 5 years, DFID too has been supporting the government in this effort, and by 2015, we will have provided access to primary and lower secondary education to 140,000 children. However, there are still around 650,000 out-of-school children who are not getting an education.

Since 2008, DFID has been supporting a local NGO, School for Life to deliver a second-chance education numeracy and literacy programme for these out-of-school children. On completion, these children enrol in primary school (see my colleague, Henry Donati’s blog post). From 2013, we will be scaling-up this support to reach 120,000 out-of-school children, and helping the government to partner with NGOs, who are delivering these "second-chance" programmes.

Ghanaians line up and place their finger tip over the biometric voting machine. Picture: Nicole Goldstein/DFID Ghana

Despite these improvements in access, the poor, and most of all girls, have far less chance of making it to school. In 2010, almost all children from rich households had been to school in Greater Accra. But in the Northern region, 53% of poor girls and 41% of poor boys had never been to school. In my post in October, I discussed DFID's Girls PASS programme through which we will give 70,000 of the poorest girls, scholarships to attend and complete school.But going to school is only part of the battle, as over half of women and over one-third of men aged 15 to 29 who had completed six years of school could not read a single sentence. Improving the quality of education offers a unique opportunity to bring in new ways of supporting teachers to improve the quality of their teaching. In Ghana, there is an often-used expression to describe the rote-learning, teacher-led classroom experience - "Chew, Pour, Pass and Forget!" Over the next couple of years, DFID will be supporting 9,000 teachers to use more interactive ways of teaching and harnessing Open Source Learning materials.

Our DFID Ghana team with Professor Kwame Akyeampong, co-author of the Global Monitoring Report

This story for Ghana is told quite clearly in UNESCO's Global Monitoring Report, "Youth and Skills: Putting Education to Work." Recently, the well-known Ghanaian academic, Kwame Akyeampong  who founded the Institute of Education at Ghana's eminent university, Cape Coast - and now co-author of this report, returned home to launch the report. He underlined the fact that "there's something wrong (with the Ghanaian education system) if we can't teach our young people to read and write". Ato Ulzen-Apppiah, a Ghanaian youth leader, who used to work at Google Ghana and has now set up his own organization Ghana Think Foundation, agrees that "this report's focus on Ghana comes at a really interesting time. There's a lot of debate around education and what the government can do over the next electoral cycle."

The politicians are taking note: President John Mahama, in a policy speech asserted, "Ghana cannot eradicate poverty if over 33% of our populace cannot read and write". He also used the opportunity to say emphatically to civil servants that, "the public does not believe that it is receiving value for the money it uses to remunerate us."

Just before the election, I met with the President's Chief of Staff, Roger Angsomwine, who, (like the President) is a Northerner from Ghana's poorest region, and understands the value that a good education can have in changing ordinary people's lives. I am looking forward to finding out which parts of the government's education manifesto will be implemented first.

Why are projects that help children at an early age so effective? This is because the fastest period of growth occurs during the early years of life when a child's brain is rapidly growing and adapting to their environment. During this period the developing brain is most sensitive to risks of malnutrition, toxins, stress, and lack of nurturing and brain stimulation. The evidence shows that nutrition, stimulation and nurturing care during the early years can strongly influence the extent to which a child's health as well as cognitive and social skills, may develop to their fullest potential (Young 2002, Vegas et al 2010). The esteemed economist, James Heckman showed that investments in early childhood could improve the non-cognitive skills that are often associated with educational and professional success—things like motivation, self-discipline, and self-esteem.

Often interventions for young children are called the great equalizer! Support for early childhood interventions for disadvantaged children is a pretty good bet for developing economies wishing to promote economic mobility and long-term growth.

What the research says: This graph  shows that benefits from early childhood interventions are sustained over a lifetime as the difference in outcomes between those that had access to pre-school (red) and those that did not (blue).

The findings from the Perry Pre-School Project. Available at: http://www.highscope.org/content.asp?contentid=219

The Perry Pre-School project was a longitudinal study that has tracked African-Americans born in poverty and at high risk of failing in school. From 1962–1967, at ages 3 and 4, the young children were randomly divided into a treatment group that received a high-quality pre-school programme and a comparison group that received no pre-school programme. In the study's most recent phase, almost all of the participants still living were interviewed at age 40. The study found that adults at age 40 who participated in the Perry Pre-School project had higher earnings, were more likely to hold a job, had committed fewer crimes, and were more likely to have graduated from high school than adults who did not participate. A 2008 study estimated that the economic return to society of the programmes was $16 per every dollar invested – which meant a 1600% return!

Ghana has gained a reputation for making great strides in early childhood education in comparison to other African countries. Enrolment has soared over the past decade - between 2002-03 and 2011-12, the pre-school gross enrolment rate went from 21.8% to 112% (net enrolment, from 19% to 70%). For the past year, DFID and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation have been supporting the government in planning to meet this ever growing demand for early childhood education. There is a sense of urgency for providing pre-school programmes for Ghana's young children. Aunty Mariama, the Director of the Early Childhood Unit in the Ministry of Women and Children declares, "the children are the present and the future and if we don't execute our duties well posterity will not forgive us - we need to invest in children from the start of their lives ."

When I visit pre-school classes, I am always struck by two critical issues. Firstly, the huge class sizes which are a testament to the burgeoning demand of parents to ensure that their children do not miss out on getting a head start, and secondly, the needs of pre-school teachers who desperately hope to be able to tailor their teaching styles to their young students - just starting out on their educational journey. Luckily, the Government of Ghana is starting to recognize this in its plans.

A pre-school classroom in the Central Region of Ghana. Picture: Nicole Goldstein, DFID

The Government of Ghana's Early Childhood Education Plan states that, "education in the early years is much more than teaching colours, shapes, numbers and letters. It is about developing strong, curious, confident children. It is about extending their joy, fascination and wonder at the world around them, about developing concentration, commitment and deep involvement. It is about exploring real and imaginary worlds and forming relationships." – The Government of Ghana’s Early Childhood Education Plan.

In sub-Saharan Africa, countries are eager to learn from each other and share experiences, especially in coping with the growing young population in low-resource environments. Last month, I was able to attend a workshop, "Advancing the Early Childhood Agenda in Africa," with the Government of Ghana which brought together 13 other African delegations in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.What was most exciting was the opportunity to learn how Ghana can work collaboratively with the private sector - for example, by delivering early childhood education through NGO-managed centres and private centres and by allowing private teacher training colleges to enter the market (as Kenya does) and increase the national capacity  (75% of the 37,700 kindergarten teachers in Ghana are unqualified).

Accompanying the Ghanaian delegation at the regional workshop where we shared experiences of designing and implementing education programmes for the early years. Picture: Nicole Goldstein/DFID

In order to serve the population, creative early childhood interventions must be communicated and shared widely. The participating country delegations from West Africa who attended the workshop have set up a mailing list to continue to share what they are doing in their own countries and communicate with each other what is working. The Ghanaian Director of Basic Education, Mr Adu advocates that: "The most significant initiative to come out of attending the workshop - was the mailing list initiative and networking among the West African sub-region to create more opportunities for sharing. Thanks to all those who dreamt of this noble initiative."

And what else is DFID doing to learn more about interventions for young children? DFID is supporting developing countries to keep on top of the evidence of what works in equalizing life outcomes. The Young Lives study examines the issues of  childhood poverty, and involves tracking 12,000 children in four countries, Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam, over 15 years as they begin their lives, start school, drop out or leave school, start work, cope with births and deaths in their families and maybe even begin the own families. The project is led by a team at the University of Oxford in association with research and policy partners in the four countries. The study is showing that early childhood programmes are playing an increasing role in the lives of these children where between 80-95% of six-year-old children in India, Peru and Vietnam had accessed pre-school. Out of the four study countries it is only in Ethiopia that pre-school remains a minority experience. In a future post, I hope to share with you  some of the child profiles which tell the stories of six children from each of the countries, in their own words.

This is Adisah Alhassan speaking, a 25-year old who was identified by the NGO Camfed and supported throughout secondary school. Adisah went on to college, where she specialized in computer science and now has a diploma in software engineering.  Adisah and her community members could not be more powerful representations of the "power of we" - the theme of Blog Action Day (see my colleague, Henry Donati's blog on elections in Ghana).

Girls supported through Camfed's scholarships. (Picture: CAMFED)

Since 1995, Camfed has supported 14,500 young women like Adisah to complete secondary school by providing scholarships.  We all know that education can determine a woman’s ability to influence her own life – promoting economic independence and healthy behavior as well as delaying the time she decides to marry (see the 2012 World Development Report of Gender Equality and Development).

Last week – the International Day of the Girl's message of “my life, my right, end child marriage” brought this home. DFID Ghana’s Girls PASS programme also aims to ensure that each young woman can influence her own life. Girls PASS will do this by supporting 70,000 secondary school girls in the Northern Region of Ghana to receive the same scholarship opportunities as Adisah.

The Northern Region is one of the most deprived areas in Ghana. To give you a sense of the enormity of the development challenges – around 50% of the population live below the poverty line or to put it another way, over the past decade, while the number of poor has declined by 2.5 million in the south, it grew by 0.9 million in the 3 northern regions.

Over the next year, I will be blogging about our education programmes in Ghana, sharing stories of people like Adisah that we hope to help, and supporting Ghana to achieve secure middle income status. Not only are scholarship packages cost-effective interventions, investing in Adisah and other girls is smart economics for Ghana. The evidence confirms this approach. In a cross country study undertaken by economists, Cunningham and Chaaban they find that if, “girls receive secondary education, the additional growth would be equivalent to more than 25% of annual GDP in the African countries sampled or an increase in growth rates by one to 0.5 percentage points annually.”

While Adisah is fortunate, there are other girls who have not been. More than 65% of girls over 15 in Ghana’s Northern Region have received no formal education (compared with the national average of 21%).  This is why our support continues to be pivotal to these communities. DFID Ghana will be working with communities in the north, Camfed and the Government of Ghana to ensure that these 70,000 girls remain in and complete secondary school through targeted incentives by 2016.  The support includes school fees, uniforms (made by local tailors which helps provide the community with work), and school supplies.

Girls in the Northern region are on their way to St Joseph's School thanks to support from Camfed (Picture: Camfed)

Camfed will directly train the communities to monitor the scholarship programme using mobile phones. Community members will use interactive questionnaires downloaded on each phone to track scholarships, school achievements and community activities. Putting technology into the hands of the people themselves, and giving them responsibility for information that directly affects their lives, helps increase accountability and provides them with a vested stake in seeing their girls succeed.

The great part about Camfed’s model is that it doesn’t just end with girls like Adisah completing secondary school but extends beyond to communities. Adisah is now a CAMA– this is an alumni network of Camfed supported girls who receive skills training linked to employment opportunities to enable them to make the transition to a secure adulthood. Adisah has received management training and is now running an ICT centre, sponsored by Google in bringing Internet access and skills training to some of the most remote communities in rural Ghana.

Three hours from the nearest city with a high rate of HIV and AIDS, extreme poverty and little experience of technology, Camfed’s ICT centre run by Adisah and her three CAMA serve the community of Walewale. The Internet resource facility boasts a satellite and fast broadband connection as well as computers, printers, photocopier and digital cameras. Adisah and her other CAMA are the managers of the centre and  are providing regular training sessions for the community on topics including emailing, Internet searching and using open office tools.

Adisah has every reason to be proud and explains: “I teach and support users of the centre mostly students and young women in basic computing such as operating systems, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and the Internet.  I also provide secretarial services such as typing, printing, making photocopies and scanning documents at the centre.”

The community recognizes the role that these CAMA play in promoting education for all. Christina Adongo, a student at Walewale Senior High agrees:

Christina Adongo is making full use of the Google financed ICT centre run by CAMAs like Adisah Alhassan. (Picture: Camfed)

“This ICT centre is helping us a lot, we come here to do research for our studies so we can pass our exams, there are a lot of things we would not know if we did not have this centre, actually, it is helping us a lot.”

Future generations of girls see these CAMA creating and growing their own businesses as role models and  see first hand the importance of continuing in secondary school.