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Country Snapshot: Ghana and Education

Photo of a group of school children with their teacher.
The Ghana Mission has expanded its program in girls' education to support the activities of Strategies for Advancing Girls Education (SAGE).

Photo of a group of children in a classroom listening to their lesson.
With USAID support, NGOs have developed programs to establish HIV/AIDS clubs in schools and sensitize teachers and parents about HIV/AIDS. In addition, a nationwide HIV/AIDS prevention training program has been established in 34 teacher training colleges. All teacher trainees are required to undergo HIV/AIDS training as part of their teacher preparation program.

USAID addresses social, economic, and cultural barriers to education that negatively impact access, quality, enrollment, and safety for girls.

Strategies for Advancing Girls' Education (SAGE)

The SAGE program, implemented by the Academy for Educational Development (AED) and local partners, strengthened national, regional, and community level capacity to ensure that schools are more girl-friendly by mobilizing parents and leaders to more actively support girls' schooling.

During the pilot phase, SAGE mobilized 35 communities around girls' education issues and worked with the Ghana Education Service to develop tools to enhance girls' education.

Sara Clubs

Through the Quality Improvements in Primary Schools (QUIPS)/Sara Clubs, girls and boys read stories about Sara, an adolescent role model, and her friends, who handle problems related to sexual harassment, HIV/AIDS, sexual exploitation by "sugar daddies", teenage pregnancy, positive girl-boy relationships, and girls' retention in school. The Sara Clubs are organized on school campuses to increase girls' self-esteem and prepare them to effectively handle issues related to schools and sexuality. USAID/Ghana distributed some 5000 Sara Club kits, including videos, comic books, posters, and discussion guides, and trained 350 trainers to form the Clubs and use the kits. Over 400,000 children have participated nationwide.

Safe Schools

In January 2004, a team of USAID gender and education experts conducted an assessment of how welcoming or unwelcoming schools are for students and teachers and what makes students so uncomfortable they do not want to return. In Accra and eastern and northern Ghana, the team interviewed teachers, officials from the Ghana Education Service, NGO staff members working in education, legal rights activists, HIV/AIDS prevention officers, representatives from the teachers' union, and members from the Federation of Parents. The interviews were the first steps of the pilot Safe Schools Program, that aims to reduce school-related gender-based violence and achieve gender equality in education.


Ghana's Program Objectives

Education
Economic Growth
Civil Society
Health

Selected Activities

Strategies for Advancing Girls' Education (SAGE)
Sara Clubs
Safe Schools
Enterprise Development Program
Micro-entrepreneurs
Women Artisans
Male Involvement in Safe Motherhood
Queen Mothers
Reproductive Health Care
Capacity Building
Legal Equity and Political Empowerment for Women

Visit USAID/Ghana link to the Mission
Global Snapshots: Ghana Homepage

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 10:45:05 -0500
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