Savannah Breakthrough
Empowering rural teachers to take control of their own professional development
3-14: Kindergarten, Primary, and Junior High School
A network of state schools (Ghana Education Service) built and supported by NGO, Savannah Education Trust (SET)
2500+ students across ten villages
Lawra Municipality, Upper West Region, Ghana, West Africa
SITUATION
Geographical context
These are first generation schools in the remote northwest of Ghana where the literacy rate is 40.5 % (male 48.5%, female 33.5%) and 1 in 6 children die before the age of 5.
Shifting focus from access to quality
The NGO was founded in 2004 and the first school opened in 2006. Initially, the focus was on access: building schools, maximising attendance (children are expected to work on subsistence farms) and attempting to recruit qualified teachers. As the work has grown and matured, the focus has shifted towards developing teacher effectiveness. With a growing network of government schools, the advent of WalkThrus provided the opportunity to make an impact at scale.
Limited resources and opportunity
CPD sessions were sporadic and centralised – occasional one-off events run by the Ghana Education Service, which rarely focused on teaching techniques. Resources in the area are very limited – and travel to training opportunities in the major cities of Accra and Kumasi is arduous and expensive.
Teacher quality
Qualified teachers are in short supply due to low literacy rates and the cost of training. Once trained, many teachers migrate south for the higher standard of living. Therefore, many rural schools rely on volunteer teachers or trainee teachers, so quality can be low and variable.
THEORY
Quality Resources
WalkThrus provided Savannah teachers with access to the best educational research, broken down into clear, practical steps supported by a range of high-quality interconnected resources. For many teachers, English is their second language – so the clarity of explanation and design was ideal.
Shared understanding and language
We wanted a consistency of focus, resources, understanding and language around quality teaching across the network.
Practice
We wanted teachers to have easy access to WalkThrus to encourage ownership of their own CPD, and to facilitate practice in the classroom. Although books are in short supply, or quickly get destroyed by termites, the reality of our two-speed world is that everyone has a phone, and it was a novelty to have training resources available on a personal device.
Ownership
Significantly, WalkThrus would empower the talented Savannah school leaders to take control of their own training ensuring it was context-specific and authentic.
ACTION
Getting started
As soon as Book 1 was released, WalkThrus were pitched to the Savannah leadership team – with interesting discussions around the degree of universal applicability. Critically, the Savannah headteachers were brought into discussions at an early stage to focus priorities.
Key WalkThrus
10 key WalkThrus were selected for a 2-year programme of training. In a collaboration between Tom, Oli, Abed, Stephen, and the Savannah headteachers, a Savannah teacher training workbook was created which narrowed the focus and made the professional development Savannah-specific.
Ghana Education Service (GES)
The schools are built and supported by the NGO, but they are government schools. Therefore, each step of the roll out was carefully communicated to the GES office and local education advisers have been involved in planning and delivering training sessions. GES buy-in is key for future expansion.
Logistics and programmes
Strong leadership was key, so Abed (a Headteacher) was appointed as School Improvement Officer (SIO) for the network. Each term starts with a 2-3 day training workshop, for the Instructional Teams (IT ) from each school and GES circuit supervisors, to review the previous cycle and introduce the next WalkThrus. These sessions take place in the SET Teacher Training Centre in the market town of Lawra. Each IT then delivers regular school-based CPD dedicated to each of the focus areas throughout the term, supported by the SET SIO. Teachers practice and refine the technique through peer observations and coaching conversations with the IT and SIO. Needs across the school are identified through these discussions and lesson observations to inform further cycles.
RESULTS
Positive teacher results
Teacher responses have been very encouraging. One teacher shared that, “my teaching practices have improved because of the WalkThrus sessions, now I feel confident to teach.” The context of minimal CPD in the past has the benefit that there is little CPD cynicism and fatigue. We have an opportunity to make professional development evidence-informed, iterative, collaborative and context–specific right from the start.
Motivation
Most teachers want to do a good job and to keep improving – but they need to know how. The use of WalkThrus has triggered a cultural revolution. Knowledge is power – and from this a culture of excellence is developing, where teachers expect more of each other. SET teachers are proud to be part of a network that is taking teacher development seriously and teacher attendance (a common issue in rural Africa) has improved significantly. One teacher commented, “I am happy to be part of the Savannah teaching team; with these resources and the regular training we are supported to become better in the classroom.”
Student outcomes
It is difficult to draw a straight line between cause and effect (there are other interventions e.g. a feeding programme, eBook project, textbook budget, teacher training scholarships) but, in recent years, Savannah schools have routinely outperformed other schools in the national BECE examinations (equivalent of GCSEs).
Ghana Education Service
The GES mandates schools to conduct CPD, however, it was difficult to fulfil this responsibility due to a lack of resource and structure. The GES office in Lawra commented that “WalkThrus has given us access to the best thinking in education and simple, co-ordinated training materials. It has improved the quality of teaching and learning and provided inspiration for our teachers. We are keen to see this expand across the Municipality.”
TAKE-AWAYS
Leadership
The key factor behind the success has been strong leadership: the SIO ensuring clarity and sustained focus supported by a framework of devolved responsibility through star headteachers and the instructional teams. The quality and accessibility of the WalkThrus resources has empowered these talented professionals to take control of their own professional development programme. The evidence-informed clarity of WalkThrus short-circuits developmental issues of neo-colonialism or cultural appropriation.
Connection and motivation
For teachers working in difficult conditions in remote, rural villages it is very easy to feel isolated. WalkThrus connect Savannah teachers to the global education community, and it is impossible to overstate how motivating and empowering this is.
GES authority
Involving the GES from the start has been one of the key factors behind the success – giving the training programme credibility and status.
NEXT STEPS
Expansion: there is pressure from GES to expand the programme into schools regionally and nationally. This is something which SET are keen to facilitate – but the focus for now remains on effective implementation and embedding, before expansion. In the meantime, the WalkThrus programme has been submitted for national accreditation with the Teacher Training Council, Ghana.
Coaching conversations: more training is needed on developing coaching skills across the network, making the pedagogical discussions less hierarchical and even more developmental.
Writen By
Stephen Ramsbottom & Abednego Berkum Terle