The ultimate goal of Sabre’s work is to help Ghana achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.2; ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care an d pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education.

A key way that Sabre is supporting Ghana to reach SDG 4.2, and in turn creating sustainable, lasting change to the quality of pre-primary (known locally as kindergarten) education is by working in direct partnership with the Government of Ghana. The importance of this partnership is reflected in our strategic focus for the next three years, with a key pillar of our work centred around scaling our model so that every child in Ghana has a quality early years education.

Working in partnership with the government has been part of Sabre’s ethos from the get go. Our aim has always been to improve the existing systems within the kindergarten education sector in Ghana and not to come in and create new ones. This is critical to ensuring systemic change which is sustainable in the long term.

We have worked closely with the Government of Ghana since 2010 from both a programmatic and policy reform perspective. We have had the privilege of supporting two key curriculum reforms in Ghana between 2017 and 2019. Firstly, we supported the reform of the curriculum for student teachers studying at Colleges of Education for their Bachelor of Education in Early Childhood Education. Secondly, we contributed towards the development of the new kindergarten curriculum, which as a result includes play-based learning as a key aim for kindergarten. Most recently, Sabre was invited by the Ministry of Education to be part of the technical working group to develop an Early Childhood Education policy for Ghana.

These privileged opportunities for Sabre have positioned us as a ‘go to’ partner for the Ministry of Education when support and action is required that will impact and improve the early years education sector in Ghana. As a result, play-based learning at the kindergarten level is increasingly being built into education policy in Ghana.

Due to the government’s commitment to improving kindergarten education, today Ghana is at the forefront of providing play-based kindergarten education in sub-Saharan Africa, ensuring that children are receiving a quality early years education at this most crucial stage of their schooling.

Whilst great strides have been made in particular in policy and legislation, the challenge is now to implement quality play-based learning at scale across Ghana in an impactful and cost-effective way. We will continue to partner with the Government on this to ensure that Ghana is able to realise Sustainable Development Goal 4.2, ensuring that all children have access to a quality kindergarten education. If you would like to support us as we continue this most important work please click here.