Ghana has made substantial progress in advancing access to basic education over the past decade. Overall enrollment at the kindergarten and primary levels has increased more than 100 percent, with the achievement of gender parity at all levels of pre-tertiary education. Ghana has a nearly 100 percent primary school completion rate, and in 2019/2020 the Ministry of Education implemented a national curriculum reform program.
While access to education has improved, providing quality instruction remains a challenge. Many children fail to acquire basic literacy skills by the end of primary school. From 2014-2023, the USAID Partnership for Education: Learning Activity focused on improving reading outcomes for children in grades KG2 (kindergarten) to Basic 3, using a phonics-based approach. The activity supported teacher training, the development of instructional materials, and the improvement of evaluation and monitoring systems in 11 local languages and English. The COVID-19 pandemic halted in-person learning from March 2020 to January 2021, during which 4.5 million students engaged in remote learning. However, COVID-19-related school closures have meant that many children have not returned to school, and significant learning loss is observable among all students.
