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The Ghana government will introduce a cohort-based learning assessment model to track pupils’ academic progress throughout their basic education, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, Education Minister has said.
Under the model, learners will be assessed from Primary Two and followed through Primary Four, Primary Six and Junior High School Two before the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
Mr Iddrisu announced the policy on Tuesday when he toured Osu St Peter’s Roman Catholic Basic School and Osu Salem 1 Kindergarten and Primary School in Accra to observe this year’s National Standardised Test.
He said the new approach would enable the Ministry to measure learning growth over time rather than assessing pupils’ performance at a single point.
“It will allow us to understand whether interventions introduced in our schools are genuinely improving learning outcomes,” he said.
The Minister said the model would strengthen accountability in the education system by allowing schools to monitor learners’ progress and helping policymakers determine which reforms were effective and where adjustments were required.
He said the National Standardised Test had provided evidence on the state of foundational learning and helped the Ministry identify gaps and direct support to areas requiring attention.
During his interaction with pupils,Mr Iddrisu observed that while many learners correctly identified Dr Kwame Nkrumah as Ghana’s first President, some struggled to state the year the country attained independence.
He said the observation highlighted the need for greater focus on history education at the basic school level.
“My takeaway from today is that we have to improve the teaching of history in our basic schools. The question is not simply how learners perform today but how much this same group of learners improves over time.
“Ghana needs to realign and reinvest in basic foundational learning. When the child gets literacy right, it measures the success of that child throughout the education level,” he said.
This year’s National Standardised Test targets 2,500 Kindergarten Two learners, 4,500 Primary Two pupils, 4,500 Primary Four pupils and 4,500 Primary Six pupils nationwide.
The assessment forms part of Ghana’s broader education reforms under the Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP).
Introduced in 2021, the National Standardised Test is designed to measure foundational literacy and numeracy skills among pupils in basic schools.
Source: GNA