The USAID/Ghana Mission Director, Mr. James A. Bever, and UNICEF Country Representative for Ghana, Ms. Susan Namondo Ngongi, have formalized an agreement to enhance the quality of education in Ghana. The signing took place on January 22, 2015, marking a continued collaboration with the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service.
Through this agreement, USAID will allocate $14.5 million to UNICEF to improve learning outcomes and promote inclusive basic education across the country. A significant part of this initiative involves piloting a new smartphone platform for collecting School Report Card data in 14 districts. This application allows various stakeholders such as community members, teachers, and circuit supervisors to collect school data efficiently.
USAID's financial backing will enable UNICEF to expand this model nationwide for better school monitoring. Additionally, USAID will assist in distributing teaching materials for kindergartens and scaling up UNICEF’s "hanging library" project that provides portable libraries with English and local language stories to primary classrooms in disadvantaged areas.
Further efforts include a national campaign led by UNICEF with USAID support to raise awareness about the contributions of disabled children through specialized educational materials.
This investment is part of a broader commitment by USAID to enhance reading performance in primary schools in Ghana. It complements their $170 million Partnership for Education Project aimed at improving reading instruction and strengthening education systems while increasing government accountability.