We recently held a one-day closing ceremony to mark the end of our In-Service Teacher Training project for teachers, head teachers and Ghana Education Service officers in Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese (AAK) district in the Central Region. The closing ceremony formally marks the end of the one year of training and celebrates the hard work and devotion of the teachers, head teachers and Ghana Education Service officers. It also provided the opportunity to officially hand over the management of the project to the District Education Directorate, which Sabre will work with over the next year to ensure the sustainability of the positive impacts of the project. The project benefited 88 schools, 173 classrooms, 271 teachers, 87 head teachers, 13 Ghana Education Service officers and 4,426 children.

Ahead of the closing ceremony we held a Programme Management Meeting, which is a key component of our training activities, to update stakeholders on the successes, challenges and the next steps of the project. The meeting was attended by key officers from the district assembly, district education office and representatives of OLA College of Education, parents and teachers. There were very exciting ideas on how the Ghana Education Service and the district assembly would collaborate to support the trained teachers to continue the implementation of the project in the district whilst Sabre Education continues to provide them with some technical assistance over the next 12 months.

All stakeholders were really excited at the tremendous changes that have occurred over the last year. Mavis Ocran, speaking on behalf of parents, said,

“now our children never like to miss a day of school, they are able to narrate some activities done in school, especially storytelling, and they do communicate a lot when they are home”.

The District Director of Education vowed to sustain the best practices seen in their schools by implementing a number of follow up activities. Various speeches showed lots of support and desire to keep the project running. The District Coordinating Director plans to support kindergarten education, and shared that they have received a budget to construct kindergarten appropriate tables and chairs with plans in place to focus more on addressing other challenges within the kindergarten sector.

The closing ceremony included some fantastic displays of role play and poem recitals from the children. The day ended with a presentation of certificates to teachers, head teachers and Ghana Education Service officers who participated and implemented the training programme.

We look forward now to the next 12 months and implementing the actions discussed at the  programme management meeting, to help sustain the best practices in the classrooms. We also look forward to teachers upholding the good practices they learnt and ensure they take it to everywhere they may find themselves

To all the participants we say ayekoo! well done!