A Community That Believed

Dear Lead For Ghana Community,

Welcome to this week’s edition of Briefings From Lead For Ghana, brought to you by Touton. Here’s what to expect:

1. School Spotlight: Aprakukrom D/A Basic School - A Community That Believed.

2. Alumni Spotlight: Wisdom Adzaho - From Classroom to Community.

3. Education News in Africa: Ghana has secured a US$300 million pledge from the World Bank to launch the STARR-J initiative, a major secondary-education overhaul focused on expanding and modernising technical and vocational training, while across Africa the rising global success of students from Unique Child International School in robotics competitions underscores why robotics education must become a national priority for shaping the continent’s technological future.

School Spotlight: Aprakukrom D/A Basic School - A Community That Believed

In 2013, Aprakukrom D/A Basic School opened its doors inside The Church of Pentecost and a local cocoa shed, with twenty learners and one founding belief: that the children of cocoa farmers deserved access to quality education. The motto was simple and resolute: "Knowledge is Power."

By 2015, the school had moved into its own building, extending its reach to surrounding communities. A Junior High School department followed in 2018, and in 2020, the school's first cohort of 30 candidates sat for the Basic Education Certificate Examination. From 20 learners in a borrowed space, the school now serves 219 students. This term also saw the introduction of the National School Feeding Program, which has already improved attendance and engagement.

The challenges are real: teacher shortages, weak academic foundations, absenteeism tied to farm work, and a dilapidated JHS block. But what has always set Aprakukrom apart is its community. Parents employ additional teachers through pooled dues, send food to staff, and welcome newly posted teachers with genuine warmth. That spirit is what carried this school from a cocoa shed to an institution of over two hundred learners.

Abigail S. Daoyenikye, Building Confidence One Letter at a Time

When Abigail Daoyenikye arrived at Aprakukrom D/A Basic School to teach Basic One, she walked into a classroom where the gap between what children could say and what they could do was striking. Her pupils could recite the English alphabet, but when the letters were placed in front of them, recognition faltered. Many could count numbers aloud but struggled to identify or write them on paper. She also noticed that her students showed little motivation toward keeping their environment clean, a small but telling sign of the broader confidence and responsibility gaps she would need to address.

She started by grouping pupils according to their learning abilities using the Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) approach, ensuring no child was left navigating content beyond their current grasp. She brought in phonics-based instruction, flashcards, alphabet charts, and games to help students connect letters to sounds. Number cards and counting materials made numeracy tangible. Regular reading, tracing, and writing activities gave students the repetition they needed to build real fluency.

Of her 14 pupils, only three remain at the novice reading level and two are still working on letter identification, with Abigail continuing to support each of them. The rest now read fluently, recognize every letter with its corresponding sound, and can pronounce simple CVC words. In numeracy, only two students remain at the novice level, while the majority have reached the exemplary level. She has also assigned stronger students to support their peers, building both skill and community within the classroom. Together with Ernest, she revived the school's section system, and pupils now compete each week to maintain the cleanest spaces. The program has deepened her patience and strengthened her commitment to the children in her care.

Ernest Kwaku Ahiase - Tenacity

Ernest Kwaku Ahiase teaches Basic Three, and when he stepped into his classroom for the first time, what he found was both sobering and galvanizing. Three students had already repeated their grade and still could not identify letters or their sounds, could not solve simple mathematical problems, and could not read basic words. Most of their classmates who had been promoted from Basic Two were in a strikingly similar position. Out of sixteen students, only three could identify the majority of the alphabet and produce some letter sounds. Ernest describes this early encounter as deeply emotional, and it became the fuel for everything that followed.

Rather than press forward with the Basic Three curriculum and leave students behind, Ernest made a deliberate choice to go back to the beginning. In literacy, he walked students through all seven stages of letter identification and phonics, integrating instructional videos from his personal laptop to bring technology into a school largely without it. He introduced his students to the Starfall app, a tool recommended by his program coach, alongside Jolly Phonics, layering digital and tactile learning in a classroom that had seen little of either. He organised differentiated groups, introduced a daily Word of the Day activity to build vocabulary incrementally, and used letter card games to make practice feel like play. For numeracy, he moved deliberately from concrete to abstract, using counters and teaching aids to anchor basic operations before introducing more complex concepts. He also organised extra classes for students who needed additional time, a quiet and consistent investment in those most at risk of being left behind.

Today, none of his sixteen students remain at the novice level in basic operations. The majority have reached the exemplary level. Ernest looks at the growing testimony from parents, who are beginning to see and name the changes in their children, and feels the weight and the wonder of what is possible. For him, Lead for Ghana's vision of quality education for every Ghanaian child is no longer an abstraction. It is something he can see, right here, in a cocoa-farming community.

Obed Emmanuel Agbo - From Fear to Confidence

Obed came to Basic Two with clear eyes about the scale of what lay ahead. His students struggled with both the academic and the emotional dimensions of learning. In literacy, many could not identify letters or understand basic letter sounds. In numeracy, the majority were unable to identify or write numerals from 1 to 50, let alone perform basic operations. But beneath these academic gaps was something that concerned him even more: a profound lack of confidence that had settled into the children like a second skin.

He moved away from rote teaching and introduced play-based learning and hands-on strategies to make abstract concepts accessible, differentiated his instruction to meet each learner where they were, and used the Teaching at the Right Level framework to ensure that no child advanced without first mastering the basics. Together with his fellow Associates, he also organised broader initiatives including an International Day of Education and a Financial Literacy program, to expand the horizons of children whose world, for many, had not yet extended far beyond the farm.

The transformation in his classroom is best understood through one student: Nyamekye Blessing. When Obed first met her, Blessing could not identify the first few letters of the alphabet. When called upon in class, she would freeze, and her peers would laugh. She began to lose interest in coming to school at all. Recognising the depth of what she needed, Obed invested in one-on-one mentorship and dedicated hands-on practice, patient, consistent, and personal. Today, Blessing attends school regularly. She can identify all letters and their corresponding sounds. She speaks in class. While she continues to develop her blending skills, the distance she has traveled is extraordinary, and for Obed, her story is the blueprint for what this school can become.

Alumni Spotlight: Wisdom Adzaho - From Classroom to Community.

There are educators who teach subjects, and then there are educators who transform lives. Wisdom Adzaho firmly belongs to the latter category. A mathematics teacher at Vic's Vision International Charity School and alumnus of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. Wisdom carries a deep conviction that every young person, regardless of their background or circumstance, deserves access to the kind of teaching that unlocks their potential. It is a conviction that was deepened and given direction by his time as a Lead For Ghana Associate.

Wisdom first encountered the Lead For Ghana opportunity during a seminar organized for Mastercard Foundation scholarship scholars, where a link to the LFG application was shared in a WhatsApp chat. For someone whose values had always centered on access to opportunity, the message resonated immediately. He applied, and what followed was nothing short of transformational.

Wisdom is emphatic that Lead For Ghana is far more than a teaching placement program. Beyond placing Associates in rural communities, it builds the capacity and leadership potential of young graduates, serving as a platform for them to unleash their talents and gifts. For communities with limited access to quality education, the presence of a committed, well-trained Associate can shift trajectories entirely. For the Associate himself, the experience reshapes how he sees his own potential. The training Wisdom received sharpened his teaching skills in ways he continues to draw on today. Strategies in classroom management, student engagement, and instructional delivery became tools he used with growing confidence, making his work not just more effective, but more meaningful.

If one figure captures the scale of Wisdom's impact during his time as an Associate, it is this: in 2023, the school to which he was posted recorded a 100% pass rate at the Basic Certificate (BC) level, up from 0% before his arrival. It is a result that speaks volumes, not only about academic improvement, but about what becomes possible when a community gains access to a dedicated, passionate educator. Wisdom frames this achievement beyond the numbers. His work helped learners grow into their own leadership identities, with many going on to occupy leadership positions as they progressed academically. It is a quiet multiplier effect that continues long after the placement ends.

Today, at Vic's Vision International Charity School, Wisdom teaches mathematics to students in Basic 7 through Basic 9. The context has changed, but the mission remains the same: building capacity, opening minds, and positioning young people to seize the opportunities that come their way. The foundation laid during his time with Lead For Ghana continues to inform every lesson he delivers. And his ambitions do not stop at the classroom door. He is working toward establishing his own NGO, one that will scale up the extra tuition and mathematics enrichment work he already does, and extend it to communities and individuals who need it most. His vision explicitly includes persons with disabilities, a commitment that reflects his belief that quality education must be genuinely inclusive.

To those currently serving as Lead For Ghana Associates, Wisdom has this to say: "Take the work personally and seriously. This is a platform for your career progression, so don't treat it as a burden. Be diligent, and use the opportunity to unleash your talents, gifts, and potential. Let your learners feel your impact, because one of those kids may one day mention your name, and that mention could open a door you never imagined."

Education News In Africa

Ghana: World Bank Pledges US$300 Million to Transform Ghana’s Secondary Education

The World Bank has committed $300 million to overhaul Ghana’s secondary education system, with a strong emphasis on technical and vocational training, as its senior-most official on the ground wrapped up a series of school visits in Accra this week.Paschal Donohoe, Managing Director and Chief Knowledge Officer of the World Bank Group, confirmed the new funding commitment during visits to Osu Manhean Basic School and the Armed Forces Senior High Technical School in Burma Camp. The project, formally designated the Secondary Education Transformation for Access, Relevance and Results for Jobs (STARR-J), is expected to commence within the current fiscal year. (Source: NewsGhana)

Africa: Africa’s tech future starts in the classroom: Why robotics education is a national priority

In the discourse about Africa's technological future, we tend to focus on the wrong things. We celebrate foreign investment in tech hubs. We marvel at the latest gadgets imported from Silicon Valley. We pin our hopes on grand infrastructure projects that often take years to materialize. Meanwhile, the most critical element of our technological destiny is sitting in classrooms right now, waiting to be discovered. The recent performance of four students from Unique Child International School (UCIS) at the Avishkaar International Robotics Competition (IRC) League 2026 in India offers a profound lesson in where our priorities should lie. (Source: Graphic Online)

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About Lead For Ghana:
Lead For Ghana is a movement of solution-driven leaders expanding educational opportunities to all children in Ghana. We are a Ghanaian not-for-profit organization with a firm conviction that education is the most powerful solution to all societal problems and the medium to provide equal opportunities. So we commit people, funds, and ideas to ensure that all children in Ghana can attain an excellent education.

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