Sabre and Instill Education have partnered to train early grade teachers in Ghana online as part of efforts to help Ghana achieve SDG 4.2 on universal access to quality pre-primary education.
A key focus of Sabre’s strategy to support Ghana to achieve SDG 4.2 is to develop hybrid teacher training, combining face-to-face and online training. Offering training online will increase its geographic reach and could also be more cost effective. To this end, Sabre has partnered with Instill Education, a Pan-African EdTech higher-education institution that focuses on teacher capacity development and professionalism. Instill’s innovative digital solution, Upskill@Instill, is being used to take Sabre’s play-based kindergarten teacher training online.
We were delighted to be invited to a recent event where the results of a nationwide pilot, from Instill Education and the Ghana Government’s National Teaching Council, were shared. The pilot aimed to provide Ghanaian teachers with accessible, practical professional development through the Upskill@Instill platform. Findings from the pilot study will be used to build the capacity of practicing teachers to help them effectively improve the education of children across Ghana.
Speaking at the event, Mr. Alim Ladha, CEO at Instill Education shared, that “no time-tested education system can claim success without referencing the important role of qualified and well-trained teachers”.
Deputy Minister for Education, Mrs. Gifty Twum-Ampofo who was also present at the event highlighted the need to encourage and promote the participation of female teachers in the use of technology for learning. This was based on the results from the pilot study which indicated that only 30% of participants who enrolled for the courses were female.
Participants also discussed strategies for improving access to affordable data for teachers. It was noted, that engaging the telecommunication companies to provide free data to teachers as a corporate social responsibility in support of education was a practical solution. Additionally, government could be urged to allocate part of their annual budget to provide data for teachers to encourage their participation in online learning.
The event which was chaired by Prof. Jophus Anamuah-Mensah attracted key stakeholders from government, academia, and development partners in education. Representatives from the Ghana Education Service the National Teaching Council and UNESCO were also present.
Photo credit: Instill Education.
