AN EXAMINATION OF QUALITY IMPROVEMENT EFFORTS IN BASIC EDUCATION IN THE BONGO DISTRICT OF GHANA

Abstract

The continual decline in the performance of pupils of the Bongo District at Basic Education Certificate Examinations since 2005 has raised concerns regarding the quality of basic education. This study was set to determine efforts at improving the quality of basic education and its effects in the District. The study was based on a descriptive survey involving the use of questionnaires, interviews, observation and profiling of the sampled schools. The study, guided by the Basic System Model, revealed that basic education in the District was characterized by high pupil: trained teacher ratio, high pupil-core textbook ratio, high pupil-computer ratio and limited infrastructure. The study also showed that the District had implemented various interventions in the form of the district-wide mock examinations, girl-child education programmes, school-based in-service training, performance monitoring tests and school appraisal meetings. These interventions by the Bongo District Education Directorate, coupled with the collaborative efforts of government and NGOs, have brought about mixed effects contrary to the popular belief that the quality of basic education has been declining. There have been positive outcomes in the forms of the increase in gross enrolment rate, net enrolment rate and completion rate since 2005. However, amid the persistent challenges of high pupil-trained teacher ratio, shortage in teaching and learning materials, poor school infrastructure and weak parental cooperation, the performance of students has remained poor. Hence, the study concludes that the investments in education have delivered some important positive outcomes but failed to reach the expected goal of improved student performance. It is recommended that all stakeholders pool their resources together to remove the existing challenges in order to better enhance the effects of the interventions on performance aspect of the quality of basic education improvement drive in the District.