Education Out Loud case study: School for Life

Children living in remote rural parts of Ghana experience inequality in basic education, in terms of both access and outcomes. This issue is particularly acute in the north of the country and for girls. For example, 30 percent of children in the north have no school nearby and 20 percent will never enroll. Furthermore, transparency and accountability within Ghana’s education system is weak. Generally, information is not disseminated in a way that is accessible to most citizens (for example it is not produced in a local language), which means they are denied the opportunity to understand and engage with the education system and, in turn, hold officials to account. It is within this context that School for Life, and the associated CLEAR project operate. School for Life was founded in 1995 and is a lead civil society organisation (CSOs) in Ghana. It was founded due to the serious educational performance challenges faced in deprived parts of northern Ghana, particularly in terms of the high number of out-of-school children. This case study is part of a larger body of work funded by the Global Partnership for Education’s (GPE) Education Out Loud (EOL) programme. It explores the advocacy and policy influencing (API) activities of School for Life, an organisation receiving funding from EOL, and the process, results and impact of action research project they conducted in partnership with MDF/ Australian Council for Education Research (ACER), an EOL ‘Global Learning Partner’ (GLP).