Transformational Teacher Training in partnership with the University of Winneba

In December 2020, Sabre Education signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Education, Winneba (UEW), the leading early childhood education (ECE) academic institution in Ghana, to work collaboratively to promote best practice and thought leadership in ECE in Ghana.

The key objective of this partnership is to transform the teaching practice of kindergarten teachers in two districts (Efutu and Agona West) surrounding the UEW in Ghana’s Central Region. The project will achieve this by delivering Sabre’s districtwide in-service Transformational Teacher Training to all government kindergarten teachers, as well as head teachers and Ghana Education Service officers, across these two districts. Through the experiential training teachers will move away from didactic rote methods, where learning is conducted through repetition and memorisation, to the government endorsed play-based pedagogy.

The training will also ensure that schools in these districts are able to provide high quality practical placements for student teachers studying for their Bachelor of Education at the UEW. The placements give student teachers the confidence and capability to enact the play-based pedagogy independently as Newly Qualified Teachers.

The partnership between Sabre and UEW also presents the opportunity to disseminate research and best practice methods to influence government ECE policy. We also aim to co-host with UEW an ECE conference that will create a platform for advocacy and knowledge sharing.

This project will reach the following beneficiaries:

• 10 Ghana Education Service (GES) officers will be trained to deliver the Transformational Teacher Training.
• 301 teachers and 98 head teachers will be trained, across 182 classrooms. They will develop and consolidate their understanding of the play based pedagogy and curriculum for kindergarten, transforming their classroom practice.
• 30 GES District officers will fully understand the training, enabling them to monitor the standard of the classrooms through coaching and assessment.
• 7,280 four and five-year-old children will receive a quality education by being taught in a more engaging way in year one of the project, equipping them with the foundation skills to succeed in primary school. The trained teachers will continue to benefit successive cohorts of children, reaching 21,840 children within five years of their training.