Championing Change

Dear Lead For Ghana Community,

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

1. Associate Spotlight: Emmanuel Pagadana Aluu - The Teacher He Never Had

2. Alumni Spotlight: Lydia Awentiirim Awumbiisi - Championing Change

3. Education News in Africa: Ghana and the UK have signed a £215 million growth partnership focused partly on expanding world-class education and creating jobs, while a parallel debate is growing at home over whether the long-standing practice of preparing for BECE and WASSCE mainly by solving WAEC past questions is still the right path to academic success.

Associate Spotlight: Emmanuel Pagadana Aluu - The Teacher He Never Had

Emmanuel Pagadana Aluu is a Lead For Ghana (LFG) Associate and proud graduate of the University for Development Studies (UDS). Emmanuel brings to his classroom something that no training programme can manufacture: the lived memory of a child who wanted more and had to go without.

Emmanuel is from Paga in the Upper East Region, and that is where he spent his entire childhood. His education unfolded entirely through public schools, beginning at Baloo R/C Primary School, continuing through Kajelo Junior High School (JHS), and then Gowrie Senior High Technical School (SHTS) for senior high, before he earned his degree at UDS. As a child, Emmanuel dreamed of becoming a news anchor, drawn to the power of storytelling and the ability to give voice to issues that mattered. That instinct toward communication and impact did not disappear. It simply found a different classroom.

Emmanuel first heard about Lead For Ghana in his final year at UDS through a campus representative. Listening to what the organisation was doing, something personal and immediate was triggered. He thought back to his own years in rural schools, to the absence of teachers and resources, to the feeling of wanting more and not having the support to reach it. When he heard about LFG, the decision was not complicated. He wanted to be the teacher he had needed when he was growing up. That desire carried his application all the way through to selection.

The placement has delivered both its rewards and its difficulties without softening either. The hardest part has been the isolation that comes with poor network connectivity in a deeply rural community. Staying in touch with family and friends has required deliberate planning, reserving tasks that need internet access for the moments when connectivity becomes available. Rather than allow that constraint to become a source of frustration, Emmanuel has responded by turning his attention more fully toward his purpose and toward the relationships he is building within the community itself.

The rewards have been consistent and sustaining. Every small improvement in his learners puts a smile on his face. That daily evidence of progress is what keeps him going when the conditions around him are difficult. He is most proud, he says, of not giving up, and of the knowledge that he is giving his students something he himself was denied growing up.

The fellowship has also revealed leadership capacity Emmanuel had not previously credited himself with. Beyond the classroom, he was appointed Head of IT at his school, a responsibility he has handled with confidence. Managing tasks, solving problems, and supporting colleagues outside his immediate teaching role has shown him that his abilities extend further than he had allowed himself to believe. Inside the classroom, his patience, communication, and problem-solving have all grown through the daily practice of planning lessons, managing diverse learners, and adapting when things do not go as planned.

Before his placement ends, Emmanuel's goal is specific and purposeful: he wants his learners to read and speak fluently, independently, and without fear. He draws on Shakespeare to frame it: every child has a natural ability to read and write, and his work is to help bring that ability forward before he leaves. Finishing strong, for Emmanuel, means walking out of that classroom knowing his students can read passages aloud, speak up confidently, and continue learning on their own after he has gone.

To his younger self, Emmanuel's advice is personal and grounded in everything the fellowship has taught him: "Take this programme seriously, because it is bigger than you think. Focus on the learners, not the discomfort. The smiles and progress you will see in them will make all the bad network days worth it. Be patient with yourself. You will not fix everything, but every child who learns to read fluently because of you is a win. Remember your why. When it gets hard, go back to that final year version of you who said: I want to make a change. That purpose will carry you."

Alumni Spotlight: Lydia Awentiirim Awumbiisi - Championing Change

Lydia Awentiirim Awumbiisi was born in Siniensi, a community in the Builsa North District of the Upper East Region, and raised in Tamale. She had her secondary education at Sandema Senior High Technical School, now known as Azantilow Senior High Technical School, before pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Development Education Studies at the University for Development Studies in Tamale. Her academic background gave her a strong foundation in community development, education, social policy, and participatory approaches to solving development challenges, and she has spent the last four years working in child rights, gender and human rights advocacy, climate change and sustainability, and community development.

Lydia first heard about Lead For Ghana through a campus ambassador who visited her class at the University for Development Studies and spoke about the program and its vision of nurturing the next generation of leaders across Ghana. The moment she heard about it, something clicked. That evening, back at her hostel, she went straight to the website to learn more. Everything she found confirmed what she had felt in the room: this was exactly the kind of opportunity she had been looking for. A role that would challenge her to step outside her comfort zone and contribute to meaningful change for underserved communities. She knew she had to apply.

What followed was, by any measure, a test of everything she believed about herself. Lydia packed her belongings and made the nearly thirteen-hour journey from Tamale to Chirano, leaving behind everything familiar for a community she knew very little about. On arrival, she encountered poor internet connectivity, bad roads, and frequent power outages. The school itself was an unfinished building with a small student population. Many of the boys preferred engaging in galamsey activities, while some girls spent their time at the market rather than attending school. The classroom she stepped into as an English Associate presented its own sobering reality: some learners could not identify letters of the alphabet, let alone read or communicate confidently in English.

Rather than be overwhelmed, Lydia got to work. She established a Literacy Clinic at the school as a first step toward addressing the reading gap, but attendance quickly became a challenge as many of the learners the clinic was designed to support were frequently absent. Classrooms were often half empty, and student motivation was low. She and her colleagues responded with regular home visits, one-on-one mentorship, continuous follow-up, and consistent encouragement. To sustain motivation, they introduced a prize-giving ceremony at the end of every semester to celebrate effort, improvement, and achievement. Progress was slow, but it was real. Learners who once struggled to speak in class began to express themselves confidently in both writing and speech. Some went on to take up leadership roles within the school.

The fellowship also opened doors that Lydia had not imagined were within reach. Through her affiliation with Lead For Ghana, she has participated in the Young African Leaders Initiative in West Africa, the African Middle Eastern Leadership Project where she now serves as a mentor, the Harvard Aspire Leaders Program, and the Menstrual Changemakers Fellowship. Today, she works in project management, with experience spanning project coordination, stakeholder engagement, community development, youth empowerment, and human rights advocacy. She has also contributed to the Women's Network of Amnesty International Ghana, supporting efforts around gender equality and women's rights.

Her achievements extend further still. Lydia has earned a scholarship to pursue a Master of Arts in Child, Youth, Family and Community Studies at the University of Victoria in Canada, where she is currently the only African student in her cohort. She is also enrolled in a programme on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Sustainable Development and the Law, offered by Democratising Education for Global Sustainability and Justice in collaboration with the University of Cambridge. Alongside these academic pursuits, she is currently researching the mental health of adolescent mothers, with a particular focus on how culture and religion influence their access to care and support in Ghana.

Looking ahead, Lydia hopes to contribute to national and global efforts advancing child welfare, youth development, social justice, and sustainable development. Through research, advocacy, and policy engagement, she aspires to help shape systems and interventions that better support vulnerable children, young people, and families, while promoting climate resilience and sustainable communities.

To those currently serving as Lead For Ghana Associates, Lydia offers this: "The zeal and excitement with which you left institute may slowly fade as the realities of the fellowship set in. There will be days when progress feels invisible, your heart will ache, and you will question your approach, your efforts, and your purpose. When those moments come, do not look for the big changes. Look for the subtle ones, the ones that do not scream, are not flashy, and are easy to overlook.”

Education News In Africa

Ghana: Should solving past questions continue to be the way to success in Ghana?

There is a question that every generation of Ghanaian students, teachers, and parents has quietly answered not through deliberate policy, but through habit, necessity, and pragmatism: how do you prepare for the BECE or the WASSCE? The answer, almost universally, has been: get a Pasco, solve the past questions, and you will be fine.

For decades, this approach worked well enough. Students who diligently worked through years of West African Examinations Council (WAEC) past papers earned their grades, secured their school placements, and proceeded through Ghana’s educational pipeline.

The Passco booklet became as synonymous with exam preparation as the school uniform, and the instruction “go and solve past questions” became a mantra passed from teachers to students, from parents to children, from older siblings to younger ones. (Source: Ghana Web)

Ghana: Ghana, UK sign growth partnership deal to address education and job creation

Ghana and the United Kingdom signed on Monday the landmark UK-Ghana Partnership, which is to help transform the economy and create thousands of opportunities for people.

The deal, worth £215 million, was signed by the British High Commissioner to Ghana, Christian Rogg, and his counterpart, Sabah Zita Benson, Ghana's High Commissioner to the UK, during the Ghana-UK Investment Summit in London on Monday.

It targets four main areas that include delivering world-class education, enabling easier trade for Ghanaian businesses, attracting private investment and driving industrial growth. (Source: Africa News)

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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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