Reports on the administration of the 2005 and 2007 National Education Assessment tests in English and Mathematics for primary three and six pupils has provided evidence of poor performance by public primary school pupils with regard to literacy and numeracy skills. The Director of the Basic Education Division at the Ghana Education Service, Mrs. Esther Happy Edjeani who disclosed this, said in 2005, while only 16 % of primary three public school pupils achieved grade-level proficiency skills in English language, only20.3% of primary six pupils were able to achieve the grade level skills in English language.
Mrs. Edjeani was addressing District Directors of Education in the Ashanti Region at a day’s briefing on the National Literacy Acceleration Programme (NALAP) in Kumasi. NALAP is a literacy-initiative by the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports and the GES which aims at providing the much needed quality instruction to bring about improved learning outcomes. The programme is being funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Mrs. Edjeani explained that to facilitate the design and development of the processes for the literacy initiative, the GES has put in place a National Literacy Task Force to provide strategic oversight and policy direction for the design and implementation of the national literacy instruction approach.
