Play-based Teacher capacity development in Ghana

Sabre Education (Sabre) is an international NGO transforming early childhood education in Ghana by Implementing play-based learning at scale. Sabre has a 21-year proven track record of designing and implementing play-based learning programmes in Ghana. Through partnerships with the Ghana Education Service (GES) and other government agencies, education NGOs, and school communities, we are: • Influencing early childhood education (ECE) policy and practice. • Training teachers and school officials in quality early childhood education. • Transforming learning environments to facilitate positive play-based learning. Our 2030 goal is for Ghana to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 4.2: universal access to quality early childhood education. We do this in support of our vision, which is a world where early childhood education supports every child to succeed. To date, Sabre has trained 6,060 teachers, headteachers and student teachers across Ghana in play-based learning. An estimated 361,095 Ghanaian children will have benefited from Sabre’s play-based learning programmes, assuming the teachers continue to work in classrooms for five years following Sabre’s training.

How it works Using a Train-The-Trainer approach, the model strengthens the education system to support kindergarten teachers in delivering Ghana’s play-based kindergarten curriculum. It trains regional and district-level Ghana Education Service officers to effectively train and monitor teachers, and it equips headteachers with the skills to coach and support their teaching staff.

The model focuses on play-based teaching, promotes gender equality, and encourages inclusive learning. Its goal is to help children build critical literacy, numeracy, and psychosocial skills. Additionally, it develops key competencies in children, such as self-confidence, communication, cooperation, curiosity, and concentration—known as the ‘Five C’s.’

Sabre and its partners have supported the Ghana Education Service to train a pool of expert National Trainers. These trainers are available to be deployed across Ghana to train regional and district-level officials in play-based early childhood education learning.

Equipped with this training, the National Trainers support District Teacher Support Teams (DTSTs) to train kindergarten teachers. These DTSTs are GES officials who are responsible for supporting schools in their area.

DTSTs are supported to deliver 9 days of Training Workshops to all kindergarten teachers and their headteachers in each district.

The teacher training covers play-based pedagogy, positive behaviour management, Ghana's standards-based kindergarten curriculum, setting up play-centres in classrooms, the value of indoor and outdoor play, and creating daily lesson plans. Additionally, it includes specialised modules on gender, inclusion, and parental/ community engagement.

Three days of additional in-classroom coaching training is delivered by the DTSTs to headteachers to enable them to coach and mentor kindergarten teachers, sustaining quality teaching practices.

Classroom Resource Packs are provided to each classroom, and templates are given to teachers with training on how to make their own low-cost or no-cost learning resources.

Support is provided to develop kindergarten-specific Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). These bring teachers from local schools together for peer learning and support.

The Ghana Education Service's District Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) teams are supported to monitor and assess the training and evaluate the teachers' competency. Teachers are trained to assess children's progress toward developmental milestones, focusing on literacy, numeracy, and psychosocial skills.