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This study analyses the experience of key workers in Ghana during the COVID-19 pandemic. It analyses their working conditions prior to the pandemic, and then assesses how the pandemic heightened their job demands. In addition, it assesses the extent to which the State and private employers provided the requisite job resources to enable them to cope with the increased demands caused by the crisis. The study finds that some frontline workers have had an increase in work pressure, while other categories of workers, particularly in the informal economy, experienced a decrease in work pressure as demand for their services fell off given the general declines in income. The study finds that although the pandemic reshaped the work environment, workers' concerns regarding the future were not tied directly to concerns about COVID-19, but rather to larger concerns about working conditions and income security that existed prior to the crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the historical growth of teacher education in Ghana and the various attempts made to ensure that societal demands are met as far as teacher effectiveness and supply are concerned. Since the colonial period, teacher education has received the desired attention. This attention is seen in the manner in which teacher education has been changing both in structure and content. Various governments have been quick to realise that education holds the key to the development of the nation and at the heart of the education system is the teacher. In this Paper, the writers present the development of teacher education from 1925 to 1997.

This paper describes an ongoing research study, which began in January 2017, about how to create an effective distance learning program in a hybrid mode that integrates WhatsApp Messenger as the learning platform for students who live in Ghana's remote areas where Internet connectivity and electrical power supply are limited. Qualitative approach was employed with a total sample size of 807 students, composed of 58 percent male and 42 percent female. The results from the demographics report fit traditional adult learners as described in the literature. About 89 percent of the students indicated that they work, while 54 percent of them were engaged in full time employment. I concluded that using WhatsApp Messenger in a blended mobile learning context is not nuisance to students, rather it is a 'helpmate' to help resolve many of the contextual difficulties that plague them in distance learning situation in Ghana. [For the complete proceedings, see ED600498.]

The article presents a working paper in agricultural water management to benefit smallholder farmers in Ghana. The paper summarizes research conducted as part of the AgWater Solutions Project in Ghana between 2009 and 2012. According to the author, researchers from the AgWater Solutions Project conducted studies on the potential for inland valley rice production, groundwater use, and management of small reservoirs and out-grower schemes.

A country report for Ghana is presented from publisher Country Watch, with topics including Gross Domestic Product, economic recovery from Covid-19 crisis, and political stability.

The article offers information related to education, structural change, and employment in Ghana and mentions topics including the country's economic growth, enrolment rates, and economic structure.

This paper aggregates the academic literature reviewing and reporting interventions for out-of-school children (OOSC) around the world to serve as a guide for potential interventions in South Asia and elsewhere. It complements the Global Initiative on Out-of-School Children (OOSCI) South Asia Regional Study (2014). Thus the interventions reviewed include those in South Asia that were not extensively discussed in the OOSCI South Asia Regional Study as well as emphasis on interventions outside the region to further expand the knowledge base and evidence on effective interventions to reach out-of-school children. The interventions reviewed cover both those targeted for children who have never enrolled and those who may have enrolled in the past but have dropped out. It offers strategies and best practices for Early Childhood Development (ECD) programs with attention to cognitive and social-emotional development, as well as methods for expanding pre-primary access and improving school readiness with special attention to on-time enrollment, all known deterrents keeping children from dropping out of school. It also echoes assessments and reports describing a geographically wide array of non-formal education (NFE) interventions, covering the Alternative Education System in South Sudan, an educational resource center in Ireland, Educational Centers for Development in Mali, Community Learning Centers in Myanmar, complementary education and multi-grade schooling in Ghana, community engagement in Gambia, non-formal education in Zambia, and an overview of the potential of private school outreach and vocational non-formal education. Based on findings from impact evaluations and quasi-experiments, this literature review explores the effectiveness of pro-poor economic incentives, including voucher and cash transfer programs that have shown promising results in mitigating the opportunity cost of children relinquishing wages to attend school. This literature review also analyzes the decentralization of education systems and inclusive education through the lens of governance, providing short case reviews from around the world as learning examples and points of comparison. The paper then discusses sector plans in education as well as the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and key literature while offering country examples. Additionally, the researchers provide a review of Education Management Information Systems (EMIS) and related systems around the world and highlight the opportunity for NFE and OOSC data incorporation into larger data systems as a means for providing paths to schooling for OOSC. The final section of this paper offers recommendations for possible way forward for the South Asia region, including further areas for research. An annex includes supplemental tables and figures.

This paper discusses the phonology-syntax interface in Akan, a language spoken in Ghana and the Cote d'Ivoire, describing a medium of exchange between phonology and syntax. Studies in lexical phonology have distinguished two levels in phonology--lexical and post-lexical--based on how and where phonological rules apply, although some phonological rules also occur at both levels. At the post-lexical level, the phonological rules normally require a particular domain of application, without which they fail to be triggered. The question is where and how to define these domains. The paper discusses aspects of the phonology-syntax interface, referring to noun-noun and noun-adjective phrasal word (compound) constructions, which come along with both tonal and segmental rules applying on the dictates of some constraining conditions. Assuming that the domain of post-lexical rule application is drawn from the prosodic component, the paper argues that although the influence of syntax cannot be undermined, it should not have directly influence the phonology. That is, syntactic inputs and even some phonological information constitute structures underlined in the prosodic hierarchy. (Contains 11 references.) (SM)

Learning analytics is a domain that has been constantly evolving throughout recent years due to the acknowledgement of its importance by those using intelligent data, learner-produced data, and analysis models to discover information and social connections for predicting and advising people's learning [1]. Learning analytics may be applied in a variety of different cases, but their role in understanding the multilingual requirements of users of learning portals is of an outstanding significance. As the adaptation of existing portals in multilingual environments is a cost- and time-consuming aspect of the development of a portal, the outcomes of learning analytics may provide the requirements on which further multilingual services of a portal will be built, ensuring their efficiency. This paper aims to identify and interpret the behavior of users from developing countries in a multilingual learning portal using the log files of the portal by applying the methodology defined in a previous work by Stoitsis et al. [2] The paper also aims to identify the aspects that should be studied by future related works by focusing on specific regions and countries that exhibit special interest for further adaptation of the portal to additional multilingual environments.

An innovative educational medium--screenprinted visual aids on cloth--is one alternative to conventional media in Africa, where visual materials are important communication tools but conventional media and materials are often scarce. A production process for cloth visual aids was developed and evaluated in Ghana and Sudan through the implementation of several experimental projects. Unlike paper and electric/electronic visual media, cloth is familiar and can be locally produced with unskilled labor. Results indicate a preference for this type of cloth-based visual aid over conventional paper ones, and printing was found to be economically feasible if done on a mass-production basis. Since 1972, economic and political stability in Ghana have deteriorated, producing a more urgent need for locally developed products. A feasibility study conducted in 1980 found cloth in short supply but need for visual materials large; however, for educational purposes, a supply of cloth could be provided. In Sudan, the development of textile visual aids is more advanced, with all materials needed locally available. The approach is significant in that, instead of transplanting a Western communications medium, the strategy takes advantage of local materials and resources. (LMM)

This paper generally sought to investigate the integration level of ICT in the training of teacher trainees at University of Education, Winneba. All level 100 students were purposive targeted in particular since they were registered to take the ICT course. One hundred of the Level 100 students were randomly selected in class to perform tasks in ICT. As part of information gathering for this research work, set tasks were prepared for the students to perform and an observation checklist was used to collect data. All these activities were done both before the intervention and after the intervention. In order to determine if the observed differences in performance of activities were statistically significant, the chi square test of independence was used. There were statistically significant relationship between the success of the tasks before or after the intervention was made. It was established that the interventions had resulted in the improvement of the ability of the respondents to undertake various ICT tasks. It is therefore recommended that the university should continue with the integration of ICT in the programmes offered in the university. (Contains 8 tables.) [This paper was also published in the "Ghana Journal of Science and Mathematics Education," v15 n1 (2011).]

Addressing school dropout has been one of the most controversial elements of policy since the introduction of free compulsory universal basic education (FCUBE) in Ghana. However, research that utilises qualitative biographical detail surrounding irregular attendance and the critical events in the process that lead to dropout in Ghana is limited. I argue that in order to achieve the target of universal basic education by 2015, education policy should focus more directly on addressing dropout. This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the critical events pupils experience as they cross the threshold from being enrolled to being out of school in southern Ghana. This paper provides fresh insights into drop outs' life worlds and educational needs; opportunities to re-cross the threshold back into basic education, whether into school or complementary provision. The findings presented in this paper show that conditions both external to the school environment--poverty and the opportunity cost of schooling--and within the school--the teacher factor, and school practices and processes--conspire to compromise retention and push and/or pull children out of school. An appendix presents: Definition of Educational Access. (Contains 14 footnotes, 1 table, and 1 figure.) [The government of Ghana and CREATE provided financial support for this report.]

This paper provides insights about the specific impact teachers' actions and attitudes can have on access to schooling. The paper reports how teachers' irregular attendance, lateness and absenteeism as well as misuse of instructional hours and indiscriminate use of corporal punishment contribute to pupils' irregular attendance and dropping out. It also reports how poor supervision by head teachers contribute to irregular teacher attendance, punctuality and absenteeism, and how these in turn impacted negatively on pupils' access to schooling. The study also identifies gaps in research around teacher contribution to children dropping out of school and suggests how further research could address some of these. (Contains 6 footnotes and 2 figures.) [University of Education, Winneba provided pre-financing for this project and for the additional support for the field work.]

Basic education is commonly regarded as a state responsibility. However, in reality, non-state providers (NSPs) have always been involved in basic education service delivery, and there is often a blurring of boundaries between state and non-state roles with respect to financing, ownership, management, and regulation. In recent years, the focus on the role of non-state providers (NSPs) has intensified within the context of the move towards achieving Education for All (EFA). The paper considers this shift, with particular attention towards service delivery to "underserved groups", defined as those for whom access to affordable government services of appropriate quality is most problematic. In some cases, this refers to particular sub-groups of a population within a country. In other cases (notably fragile states), it can refer to large sections of the country's population. The paper indicates the wide range of NSPs that exist to serve different underserved groups. It notes that NSPs are commonly viewed as having a comparative advantage over state provision--in terms of quality, cost-effectiveness, choice, accountability to citizens etc. However, in reality there is very limited robust analysis to support some of these claims. The paper then considers the ways in which non-state providers engage with the state in education service delivery, including with respect to contracting, policy dialogue, and regulation--and the role that donors play in this relationship. The paper concludes that relations between NSPs and the state are not straightforward given the range of different providers involved in education service delivery, with those serving the better-off tending to dominate engagement with government. This can be at the expense of smaller-scale, informal providers aiming to support those otherwise under-served by government provision. As such, the paper argues that there is a need for greater, and more constructive, engagement between NSPs and the state to ensure collaboration benefits the underserved, and so assists in moving towards the achievement of Education for All. Selected education indicators are appended. (Contains 15 footnotes, 1 figure, 6 tables, and 6 boxes.) [Abstract modified to meet ERIC guidelines. This paper was commissioned by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) Policy Division as part of a study on non-state providers in the water, sanitation, education and health sectors.]

While access to state schooling has grown in many countries in recent years, a hardcore of marginalised children continue to be excluded from this. Some of these children are able to gain access to education through non-state provision. The focus of this paper is on primary school aged children who find access through (international) non-government organisations (NGOs). Based on a review of the available literature, the paper shows that there have been fluctuations in attention paid to NGO provision by education researchers since the 1970s. Changes are due in part to the prevailing political and economic environment, as well as to pressure placed on international agencies and national governments to reach education targets. The paper also shows that there has been a shift in the priorities of these providers over this period, from seeing themselves as supporting a parallel, alternative system of education independent of the state system, towards one aimed at being complementary to the state system, with the intention of ultimately supporting children's access to a state-provided education. The paper highlights that much of the available literature suggests that NGO provision often intends to bring benefits in terms of the alternative forms of pedagogy and accountability it aims to offer. However, as the paper indicates, there is very little systematic, critical analysis of who is gaining access to education offered by alternative providers, or what they are actually getting access to. As such, there is a need for analysis of educational access to pay greater attention to diverse forms of access--both in terms of who provides, and what is provided. Moreover, changes in priorities associated with the effects of the international economic and political agenda, along with the intention of integrating multiple providers of education into a system-wide approach, give rise to the need for an analysis of the implications for NGO-government collaboration to ensure sustainability of educational access to those who would otherwise be excluded. (Contains 13 footnotes, 4 tables, and 5 figures.)

The Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity (CREATE), was established with DFID [the UK Department for International Development] support in 2006. It is a partnership between research institutions in the UK, Bangladesh, India, Ghana and South Africa. This paper is the first in a series of CREATE publications which will be developed over the life of the consortium. The first part of this paper discusses why access issues remain at the centre of the problems of achieving Education for All and the Millennium Development Goals. Many children remain unenrolled at primary level, many of those enrolled attend irregularly and learn little, and large numbers fail to make the transition to secondary schooling. After outlining the magnitude of the challenge of improving access to universal levels, the paper develops analytic frameworks to understand access issues in new ways, and generate empirical studies related to each of the zones of exclusion identified. The last part of the paper briefly outlines some of the empirical research that is being developed. Two appendixes are included: (1) The Six Dakar Goals and the Eight MDGs [Millennium Development Goals]; and (2) Some Research Propositions. (Contains 21 footnotes, 2 tables, and 12 figures.)

This paper seeks to draw attention to examples of negative customary practice and obsolete traditions that thwart female access to education, female emancipation, and their ultimate empowerment. The information is organized in five sections. Sections 1 and 2 present an historical review of female education in Sub-Saharan Africa and the status of female education in Ghana. Typical examples of obsolete customary practices are examined in Section 3. The benefits of educating girls are discussed in Section 4, while Section 5 analyzes the implications of all types of discrimination towards female education. Benefits to a nation when females are educated are reviewed, such as lower birthrate, improved family nutrition, increased life expectancy, and economic gains for the family. A number of policies and programs are presented that have been put into place or are suggested to eradicate the cultural, customary, and traditional practices that work against female child education. (Contains 15 references, 5 tables, and 1 figure.) (JDM)

This document contains seven papers from a study of the role of distance learning approaches in enhancing the contribution of nonformal education to socioeconomic development in Africa. "Introduction" (Richard Siaciwena) presents an overview of the research project and defines key terms related to nonformal education. "Ghana: The Use of Radio in the National Literacy and Functional Skills Project in the Volta and Northern Regions" (Kofi Siabi-Mensah) reports on a study examining the use of radio to support classroom teaching and learning in a literacy and functional skills project. "Kenya: The African Medical Research Foundation" (Anna P. Mwangi) discusses a study documenting the experience of a distance education project to provide continuing education to medical workers with little or no access to any other form of continuing education. "Tanzania: INADES- (African Institute for Economic and Social Development) Formation, Tanzania" (Amon Z. Mattee) reviews the history and activities of INADES-Formation, which provides provide training to farmers in rural communities. "Uganda: Distance Education Programmes of the Ministry of Health" (Juliana Bbuye) describes various nonformal health education activities in Uganda. "Zambia: Radio Farm Forum" (David Sibalwa) profiles a program providing technical assistance to farmers via radio. "Conclusion" (Richard Siaciwena) summarizes and synthesizes the findings of the individual case studies. (Some papers contain substantial bibliographies.) (MN)

This paper examines opportunities and challenges in early childhood teacher education in Ghana, Mali, Senegal, and the Gambia. It reviews socioeconomic and political issues, current and emerging policies for early childhood and primary education, teacher preparation strategies, and examples of successful programs. Information was collected during a 1997 sabbatical in the four countries. The researcher observed various urban and rural early childhood programs and met with government officials, directors of nongovernmental organizations, program directors, teachers, community leaders, and parents working in the field. Three sections examine: changing national contexts for early childhood education, a new global vision for early childhood education, and selected programs in the four countries. The four countries are each at crucial, pivotal moments in their national history. Challenges they face to provide care and education for their children are monumental at a time when new levels of education are essential for individual and national survival in the global society. They are faced with young, rapidly growing populations that need care and education to be productive future citizens. Rapid communication has brought information from other parts of the world, changing people's perspectives. This is all occurring at a time when poverty is increasing and finances for education and social services are inadequate. Despite this, opportunities for success are apparent in all four countries. (Contains 18 references.) (SM)

This paper discusses changes at the University of Science and Technology Library (Ghana). The first section provides historical background and summarizes current services, including the collection, the facility, the university's network of faculty/school/institute/center libraries, main library departments, staff, and automation. The next section notes factors necessitating change, including economic recession, inadequate staffing, information explosion, and technological innovations. The following areas of library work that will need to be changed or improved for the library to be relevant in the 21st century are discussed in the third section: (1) collection development, including policies/procedures and the choice between print and digital information; (2) interlibrary loans and document delivery, including the use of facsimile, e-mail, and satellite transmission; (3) the virtual library; (4) staff roles, including responsibilities of professional and paraprofessional staff; (5) the head librarian's role, including leadership, accountability, and management; and (6) other changes, including cooperative ventures, networking, charging fees, and cutting costs. The final section presents a vision for the 21st century university library that highlights reduction of red tape/bureaucracy, orientation toward meeting user needs and delivery of high quality services, library staff support of student learning, flexible structure, cooperation with faculties/institutes, an entrepreneurial approach to securing resources, and library marketing efforts. (Contains 11 references.) (MES)

This paper considers the language patterning in two situations, the student-staff meeting and student resolutions, with special reference to how the use of modal items in directives can serve as a guide to the balance of power in student-staff interactions. (Contains 10 references.) (Author)

All over the world, nations have spent much of the last 20 years scrambling to increase and improve access to basic education. Globally, the number of people without access to a basic education has fallen significantly in the years since the goals of Education For All (EFA) were announced in 2000 at the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal, and extended at Incheon, South Korea, in 2016. This is ostensibly very good news. While universal access to a basic education is certainly a worthy goal, one can raise significant questions about the orientation of these efforts and the manner in which they are being pursued. For example, very little attention seems to have been paid to what the schools are or will be like, or to how the nations and people they must serve may be different from those for whom they were designed. To understand the inevitable problems that flow from this potential mismatch, it is useful to examine education in nations that have achieved more or less universal access to basic education. Many of the educational, social, economic, and social justice disparities that plague those nations are today understood as natural effects of the educational infrastructures in operation. Examination of recent empirical research and practice that attends to the importance of social and cultural factors in education may allow nations that are currently building or scaling up access to head off some predictable and difficult problems before they become endemic and calcified on a national scale. Nations who seize the opportunity to build asset-based and culturally responsive pedagogies into their educational systems early on may, in time, provide the rest of the world with much needed leadership on these issues. [This paper was published in "Oxford Research Encyclopedias, Education."]

A country report for Ghana is presented from publisher Country Watch with topics including Gross Domestic Product, national security, and political stability.