Education Management Improvement Practices (EMIP)
Donor
STAR Ghana Foundation
Period
August 2018 – August. 2019
Location
Amansie West District
EMIP
Results
Reached directly 5368 people including children and youth, and about 23336 people indirectly. The intervention enhanced engagement between Ghana Education Service staff and stakeholders (including teachers and district head office staff) in promoting transparency and reducing corruption in Ghana Education Service in the Amansie West District. It evidently improved the demand for transparency and accountability by parents and teachers from the District Director of Education and school authorities; the level of confidence of opinion leaders and parents in reporting suspicious misconduct of teachers to the District Directorate of Education led to the transfer of some teachers and headteachers, according to the District Director of Education.
Education duty bearers in the district acquired skills on how to engage parents and other stakeholders during PTA meetings and SPAM.
Opinion leaders and influencers openly expressed their confidence to visit schools regularly to interact with teachers and where necessary demand explanations for issues of concern including the capitation grant and school feeding program.
Situation Problem
The concept and practice of transparency and accountability especially in government offices is still new and met with great skepticism within Ghana. In the education sector, district education offices seldom see such accountability and transparency modeled within the Ministry of Education and Ghana Education Service and are a bit challenged when it comes to financial accountability and transparency as the resources and amount they receive from headquarters are rarely known until they arrive, typically later than planned and at the level considerably below what is needed. Similarly, there is a lack of transparency and accountability between the District Education Offices and district/community stakeholders; and between headmasters, teachers, non-teaching staff, and parents. This is due to poor governance and management systems within the district’s offices and schools arising from structural weakness, non-inclusiveness, and non-transparent, and unaccountable management systems. This causes the greater experience of corruption, inequalities, disempowerment, insecurity, and marginalization thereby affecting stakeholders’ access to education services. With a lack of emphasis placed on accountability and transparency within the education sector, in general, it can take some time for leadership to understand the importance of the value of greater accountability and transparency unless an external agency identifies and demonstrates the effects and cost to education quality outcomes.
Response Solution
TfSC used our major strategies to enhance the engagement between duty bearers and rights holders to promote transparency and accountability to reduce perceived corruption in Ghana Education Service in Amansie West District, especially in the areas of capitation grants and school feeding programmes. These strategies involved stakeholder meetings, stakeholders/community workshops, interactive theatre performances, and project monitoring.
EMIP in Pictures
