The Rural Youth in Ghana Catching Up on Education project is addressing the educational challenges faced by rural youth, particularly focusing on improving literacy and numeracy skills among adolescents in Suhum and Ayensuano districts – a cocoa-growing areas in the Eastern Region.

In collaboration with the Ghana Education Service, the project is equipping school managers and teachers with active teaching and learning methodologies, with the view to promoting critical thinking and participatory learning among pupils. We are also providing them social and emotional learning and reproductive health education to empower the youth with essential life skills.

The initiative targets a group of educational stakeholders: 20 GES officials, 15 head teachers, 167 teachers, and 5,000 students in the Suhum and Ayensuano districts. Funded by Tony’s Chocolonely, the project is creating improved learning environments that foster both academic excellence and personal development. By empowering teachers and engaging communities, the initiative which promotes SEL and reproductive health and rights (RHR) education. These are key for increasing retention rates and ensuring the successful transition of girls to the next academic level.

Our strategy has been using professional teacher development Workshops. These workshops cover various aspects such as lesson planning, concept building, learning styles, questioning, and answering techniques, utilization of learning resources like textbooks and worksheets, group work strategies, assessment methods, and differentiated teaching.

The project also incorporates coaching, review, and sharing sessions, providing educators the opportunities to reflect on their teaching practices, receive feedback, and share successful strategies with their peers.