GES ends SHS teachers Professional Learning Community training

The Ghana Education Service (GES) says it has successfully completed a school-cluster-based Professional Learning Community training for teachers from 705 Senior High Schools (SHS) and Senior High Technical Schools (SHTS).

With support from National Teaching Council (NTC), Transforming Teaching, Education and Learning (T-TEL), the Director-General of GES, Eric Nkansah says the two weeks of training ended on Friday, June 2, 2023.

In a social media post sighted by AcademicWeek, he said the PLC training facilitated by trained teachers in each Senior High School (SHS) will ensure that all teachers are familiar with the National Teachers’ Standards (NTS)

He said it will also enable them to able to incorporate concepts related to Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI), Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Social & Emotional Learning (SEL) in their classrooms.

“We are confident that this PLC model will ensure that all teachers understand and embrace the new secondary education curriculum before it is rolled out nationally in the 2024/25 academic year,” he said in the blog post.

The training comes after GES as part of efforts to strengthen teachers’ understanding and adherence to the National Teachers’ Standards (NTS) roll out professional learning community sessions in all second-cycle schools.

The rollout comes after the Ghana Education Service since January 2022 piloted the use of weekly PLC sessions in 12 second-cycle schools using structured Handbooks developed in partnership with the National Teaching Council (NTC).

A recent evaluation found that these weekly sessions had a significant impact on improving teaching and learning in these 12 Senior High Schools providing a strong evidence base for the national scale-up of this approach.

To ensure the smooth institutionalisation of the PLC sessions across all schools, GES organized a five-day training session for a 100-member National Training Team comprising representatives from GES, T-TEL, Senior High Schools, and Colleges of Education.

The training, which took place in Koforidua from May 8 to May 12 2023, focused on equipping the National Training Team with the necessary skills and resources to support teachers and officers across various regional and district education directorates to effectively implement PLCs in SHSs and SHTSs.

The sessions demonstrated how teachers can be supported and equipped with interactive and innovative approaches to make teaching and learning more engaging for students. With a strong focus on leveraging technology and promoting Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI).