Context

The Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS) was established in 1974, and has over 3,000 member schools, representing over 70% of the low fee private schools in Ghana. GNAPS is positioned well to both enhance education quality in these schools and to engage with the state education system. For this, GNAPS needs access to data and evidence and requires professional development opportunities for its member schools. GNAPS has previously worked with both GSL and GSF on related activities; in 2022, GNAPS used materials developed by GSL to support its members in reopening schools after pandemic-related school closures, and in 2021-22, GSF supported GNAPS to develop a strategy for the inclusion of children from LFPSs in the National Standardized Test for primary pupils.

Project Spotlight:
School strengthening post-COVID reopening

GSL and GNAPS piloted the partnership in October 2021 to conduct Upya training for GNAPS member schools. The GNAPS team customized GSL’s Upya curriculum (focused on school strengthening post-COVID reopening) to meet the local needs of the school leaders, and the training was conducted by the GNAPS senior leadership team between March and August 2022. Over 1,000 school leaders nationwide participated in 16 hours of training focused on school preparedness, mental and emotional health, tackling learning losses, using technology to aid learning during closures, and setting up remote and blended learning programs. An overwhelming feedback from the participating school leaders was the need for long-term training. 

GSL built on its partnership with GNAPS by starting a pilot to train 100 school leadership teams from low-fee private schools (LFPS) in Ghana. These school leaders currently do not receive consistent support on the instructional leadership part of their role.

The program is spread across four regions (Central, Savannah, Upper West, and Western North). It will provide ~25 hours of training spread over seven months (November 2023 - May 2024) to the school proprietor, school head, and administrator of these schools to build a unified vision for their school to impact learning in their schools positively. The program is designed to be sustainable within the GNAPS ecosystem. The training will be conducted by eight GNAPS executive committee members, who will be trained by the Global Schools Forum (GSF) and the Institute of Education Planning and Administration, University of Cape Coast (IEPA), to strengthen their facilitation and overall administrative and policy lenses. Think Education, another Ghanaian nonprofit, is helping manage the overall program.