Lead For Ghana

Lead For Ghana (LFG) will leverage the Elevate Prize funding and support to advance our work by scaling our current Education Model. In addition, we will expand our Teacher Training Module to support programming in the areas of Professional Development, Data Collection, and Community Relations, this latter in the context of our Capstone Projects. 

The rationale to expand LFG operations by scaling is the next logical step to our Expansion and Development Strategy, on which the organization’s unique Education Model is based. This paradigm is a functional, scalable, replicable blueprint that since  2015, has been consistently delivering educational outcomes that far exceed those of non-LFG  Partner schools. This is evidenced by the results of the national Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE),  which all students matriculating from Junior High School must take before going on to Senior High School. On average, pass rates in LFG Partner Schools have increased from 55% to 95% since 2015.

Lead For Ghana (LFG) is a non-profit organization that focuses on education leadership development. We are affiliated with Teach For All, a New York-based non-profit with 60 global affiliates. Since our inception in 2014, we have been focused on equalizing educational opportunities for all children in Ghana, regardless of socio-economic status or geographic location; we are doing this one school at a time. Our vision is that all children in Ghana should have access to an excellent education by 2050.

Excellent academic outcomes start with excellent teachers so every year, LFG recruits  Ghana’s best and brightest university graduates called Fellows from all over the country and trains them to teach STEM subjects (Science, Information Technology, English Language and Mathematics) in underserved rural government schools. After weeks of rigorous training and a Teaching Practicum, Fellows are deployed to teach at designated LFG Partner schools, located in under-resourced rural communities. Over the past 6 years, we have integrated 217 Fellows across 6 regions in Ghana at 50 LFG Partner Schools. Our goal is to expand services and implement our unique Education Model so that, it will become the new paradigm for teaching at government schools in all 16 regions throughout Ghana. 

The problem we are solving at LFG,  one Partner School at a time, is to improve the educational outcomes of students. Ghana is classified as a Middle Income (MI) country and like other MI and Low Income (LI) countries, access to a good education to a large extent determines one’s life chances. In Ghana, many people are denied access to a good or even an adequate education. This results in systemic unemployment which impacts people’s ability to provide for their families. The above-mentioned causal factors relate to our project because they can all be traced to a lack of education, thus we are convinced that access to quality education will over time, end the cycle of generational poverty in Ghana. 

According to the Ghana Education Service (GES), only about 5 percent of Ghana’s population have a university degree. Further, based on the 2014 Human Development Index, Ghana is ranked 138 out of 185 countries pointing out its government’s failure to improve general levels of health and education.  In addition, 13 percent of school-age children are not even enrolled in primary school, and of those who are, 48 percent drop out in Junior High School (JHS).

What makes our work innovative is that it recognizes that Ghana’s poor educational outcomes are systemic and directly correlated to the disproportionate number of untrained and uncertified teachers in our classrooms.  The new approach we are taking entails deploying highly skilled and motivated Fellows to introduce and utilize LFG’s unique Education Model, one LFG Partner School at a time by incrementally raising academic standards; scaling our Education Model will make this the new norm. Currently, only  52% of Primary School teachers are certified;  at the Junior High school Level it is 38% and only 18% at the Senior High School level; these statistics have not changed significantly since 2010. 

LFG is introducing its own unique Education Model in the Partner Schools where our Fellows are teaching. 

After recruiting top graduates from Ghana's universities, candidates undergo an intensive 5-6 week training course called Institute, at top-ranked Ashesi University, in Accra. Training focuses on Best Evidence Teaching Practices, Leadership Skills, and diverse pedagogical approach based on interactive teaching and learning techniques, and structured group work.  Finally, recruits hone their newfound teaching skills with a 3-week Teaching  Practicum so they can practice what they will teach when they are deployed as Fellows. 

Lead For Ghana is having an impact on humanity, albeit incrementally, one Partner School/Community at a time. The legacy LFG leaves behind after 2 years, permanently change the educational trajectory and mindsets of participating students by opening their minds to new possibilities for a promising future.  In addition, because our 2 tiered Education Model is holistic and inclusive by nature, it is designed to not just improve the educational outcomes of participating students, but also to establish and develop partnerships with the communities we are working in. The objective is for all participants - local chiefs, religious leaders, elders, parents, etc. -  to become stakeholders in the process and thus fully vested in both the educational outcomes of the children and improving the general well being of the community as a whole, not least by getting involved in the Capstone Project executed by Fellows.

Lead For Ghana recruits top university graduates, trains them in leadership and teaching skills, and places them in under-resourced communities to be fully responsible and accountable for their classrooms. 

LFG's 2 tiered, holistic Education Model is effective because it invests students and the entire communities we serve in improving educational outcomes.