GES rolls out professional learning community sessions in SHSs
Education is often cited as one of the most important determinants of Ghana’s economic growth because of the crucial role it plays in the development of the country's human capital base.
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Recognising this, the Ghana Education Service (GES) has initiated plans for a national roll-out of Professional Learning Community (PLC) sessions across all senior high schools (SHSs) and Senior High Technical Schools (SHTSs) in Ghana.
This is aimed at strengthening teachers’ understanding and adherence to the National Teachers’ Standards (NTS) and prepare them for the introduction of the new secondary education curriculum which will be rolled out in the 2024/25 academic year.
Roll-out of PLC
Weekly PLC sessions by the GES with support from the Key Advisor for Teaching and Learning Partnerships at the Transforming Teaching, Education and Learning (T-TEL) Professor Jonathan Fletcher, have been piloted since 2022 in 12 SHS and SHTS using structured Handbooks developed in partnership with the National Teaching Council (NTC).
In a recent evaluation, it was found that these weekly sessions have had a significant impact on improving teaching and learning in these 12 schools, providing a strong evidence-base for the national scale-up of this approach.
To ensure the smooth institutionalisation and roll-out of the PLC sessions across all the 726 schools, the GES organised a five-day training session for a 100-member national training team (NTT) comprising representatives from the GES, T-TEL, SHSs and colleges of education.
Training teams
The training, which took place in May 2023, focused on equipping the NTT with the necessary skills and resources to support teachers and officers across regional and district education directorates to effectively implement the PLCs in SHSs and SHTSs.
The sessions demonstrated how teachers could be supported and equipped with interactive and innovative approaches to make teaching and learning more engaging for students.
With a strong focus on leveraging technology and promoting gender equality and social inclusion (GESI), the training also highlighted the importance of socio-emotional learning in the classroom.
All approaches used in the training were drawn from the NTS which sets out the values and attitudes, knowledge and practices expected of all professional teachers in Ghana.
During the training for the NTT, the focal person between GES and T-TEL at the Schools and Instructions unit at the GES, Faustina Graham, emphasised the importance of the training, stating, "we believe that the national roll-out of PLC will enhance the quality of education in Ghana.
“We are committed to ensuring that all teachers have access to the resources and support they need to provide high-quality education in our schools,” she said.
For her part, the National Secondary Education Coordinator at the T-TEL Beryl Opong-Agyei, who is supporting the GES with the national roll-out, expressed appreciation to all participants for their interest in the roll-out of PLCs in the SHSs.
Highlighting the significant roles the teams are expected to play over the coming weeks by rolling out the training to over 700 schools, the Eastern Regional Director of Education, Ivy Asantewa Owusu encouraged the NTT to continue to support the teachers to ensure that they prepared students to be global citizens who could thrive in the 21st-century workforce and contribute meaningfully to the world around them.
The Executive Director of T-TEL Robin Todd, emphasised that the success or otherwise of the new secondary education curriculum hinged to a large extent, on the effective implementation of the weekly PLC sessions in schools with the support of the training teams.
He explained that it was the weekly PLC sessions, rather than one-off training courses, which would be used to ensure that all teachers had a strong understanding of the secondary curriculum prior to the national roll-out.
"Through these sessions, we hope to support teachers to make learning enjoyable, recognising the individual differences of learners and helping them to develop themselves, regardless of their challenges in learning," Professor Fletcher said.
Participants expressed confidence that the training had contributed to their professional growth as well as having broadened their skills set to better enhance their teaching skills and knowledge and to foster a culture of collaboration and excellence in their schools.
Participants
The Assistant Head Teacher, Academic, at Gambaga Girls’ SHS, Miftaw Imoro, expressed satisfaction with the depth of knowledge and skills he had acquired through the training.
"I am very confident in applying the knowledge learnt from the training because we have been facilitating PLC sessions in the 12 pilot schools and we are seeing positive results.”
“We will also be training regional, municipal and district education office staff next week throughout the country, and the third week, we shall proceed to train school-based staff on PLC sessions facilitations.”
“This will help with the implementation of the new curriculum," Mr Imoro stressed.
A teacher from the Mangoase Senior High Esther Okaitso Armah, remarked that "the training has provided me with new and innovative ways to make teaching and learning more interesting and interactive.
I have learnt about differentiation, social and emotional learning, that is diversifying your teaching so that the different levels of learners can take part and benefit from your teaching.
Some of the things, we already know, some, we have to improve on. Now I am going to be more conscious about some of these competencies and apply them in my lessons,” she said.
A tutor at the St Louis College of Education, Paul Mensah, firmly believed that the knowledge gained from the training was going to revolutionise the way teaching was carried out in senior high schools.
Implementation of PLCs
Following the training of the NTT, the GES and NTC successfully completed a two-week school-cluster based PLC training for representatives from 705 SHSs and SHTS across the country.
These weekly PLC sessions, facilitated by trained teachers within each school, will help to ensure that all teachers are familiar with the NTS and are able to incorporate concepts related to the GESI, information and communications technology (ICT) and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) in their classrooms.
These PLC sessions have the potential to bring about lasting positive changes in the country’s secondary education system and can be used to ensure that all teachers understand and embrace the new secondary education curriculum before it is rolled out nationally in the 2024/25 academic year.
The writer is the Head of Public Relations Unit, GES
