Assessing the impact of the quality improvement in primary schools programme on teachers and school communities in the northern sector of Ghana

Aristotle a renowned educationist once said that "those who want to teach must cease not learning." This quotation is quite relevant for the implementation of the Quality Improvement in the Primary Schools (QUIPS) programme. This sterns from the fact that a lot of barriers were identified from the education reforms in 1987 stretching from poor education systems, inadequate trained teachers, lack of infrastructure and equipment, outdated and worn out textbooks poverty and hunger in the sub-Sahara Africa which Ghana is included. The study seeks to assess the impact of the QUIPS programme in terms of teacher performance and pupils’ progress, types of interventions of the QUIPS programme, school environment and lessons learnt from the QUIPS programme for policy formulation. This cannot be achieved without a comprehensive layout of how the data would be gathered. The study focused on the fifth group of selected schools dubbed ‘Cohort V schools’ found in five districts of the three northern regions. The districts include; Lawra, Builsa, Savelugu/Nanton, West Mamprusi and Bole. Five schools were selected from each district summing up to twenty-five schools for the implementation of the programme. The study population was all teaching staff and Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) Executives in the twenty-five school communities. Questionnaire, structured interviews and general observations were used during School-Based in-service Training programmes in the various school communities and reviewed activity reports from the communities. Microsoft Access, Excel Word packages 2007 version were used to enter the data and made analysis. One major finding was that pupils cannot be expected to make appreciable gains within a two-year intervention period in the absence of accelerated programmes in literacy and numeracy. Pupils throughout Ghana were performing far below development expectations in English reading and mathematics. Two years of CRS/QUIPS interventions was simply not enough time to remedy this deficiency. Though there has been an increase in community advocacy for and contribution for quality basic education, the coverage was limited. The study therefore recommends that communities should be involved in school health; feeding, water and sanitation and introduce income-generating activities as an entry point for adult literacy. When they are well established, they would then be able to take good care of their wards.