Education reforms initiated in 1987, led to the adoption of the current structure which provides 6 years of primary education, 3 years of junior secondary education, 3 years of senior secondary and an average of 4 years of tertiary education. This means that basic education which is made up of 6 years of primary education and three years of junior secondary education, will constitute nine [9] years of continuous education in line with UNESCO’s recommendations for literacy. A government paper issued in 1987 by the Ministry of Education and culture states that;

The educational reform was bond on the principle that literacy is a basic right of every Ghanaian.

The importance of basic education as fundamental to Ghana’s development has been underwritten with a constitutional mandate. Article 38[2] of the 1992 Fourth Republic Constitution of Ghana enjoins the Government to:

In having this constitutional mandate, and in order to improve the implementation of Education Reform Programme at the Basic level, the government introduced the Free, Compulsory and Universal Basic Education [fCUBE] programme in 1996. Basic education under the fCUBE programme is at best only nominally compulsory. Access is still low. The need to look at alternative approaches to making education accessible to the number that needs it calls for a partnership involving government, civil society and the private sector to achieve improvements in education.

According to the NFED, a functional literate person is one who can engage in activities in which literacy [reading, writing and numeracy skills] is required for effective functioning in one’s group or community for self and community development. A new programme called Literacy Functional Skills Programme [LFSP] was developed and implemented between 1992 and 1997. 1,119,720 learners were enrolled.

This was made up of 60.4% female and 39.4% male. Out of the number enrolled 902,097 [80.6%] graduated with no significant difference between genders. Evaluation of the phase I of LFSP indicates that the academic achievement of learners has been high. Though fewer male learners enrolled in the programme than female learners, the relative achievement among male learners has been higher.

The second phase of the Literacy Functional Skills Programme focuses on the provision of basic literacy and Institutional Strengthening and Improvement of programme Management. The main objective of Phase Two is to enable target groups to read, write and compute in both local and English language by utilising improved learning instructional materials. Before the implementation of phase I of LFSP, literacy was provided by the NFED in Ghanaian languages only. However, there was a growing demand for the provision of literacy in English. This was done in phase I of the LFSP as a pilot project covering 20 classes in three regions. The scope of the pilot is being expanded to cover all regions and districts.

To make reading materials interesting and relevant to the new literates, easy to read stories produced partly at the regional level is used. This is to provide opportunity for greater input from the regions where it should be easier to draw on local language specialists. Other materials produced by other literacy providers are also used. The first phase used radio broadcast to support classes in some districts. In phase II, radio broadcast will be developed for initial use in 10 to 20 pilot English classes. This will eventually be expanded to cover all English Classes.

There are non-governmental organisation [NGOs] involved in literacy activities mainly in the northern part of Ghana where the state of education is very low. National figures indicate that the literacy rate in the area among adults is under 5% and less than 25% of children attend schools. Some major partner organisations in Ghana are the Bimoba literacy and Farmers Co-operative Union [BILFACU]; the BAWKU EAST WOMEN DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION [BEWDA]; the SOMTO-FAN INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME [SOFIDEP], PROFESSIONAL NETWORK [PRONET] which works with youth clubs in Accra, and ACTION AID [GHANA].

Action Aid [Ghana] supports Reflect Circles in Communities in Northern Ghana. Reflect is now widely used in Ghana both by Action Aid and other organisations, including the government.

REFLECT is an acronym that stands for Regenerated Freirean Literacy through Empowering Community Techniques [REFLECT]. It is an empowering approach, that uses the goals and aspirations of the Freirean philosophy, using participatory rural appraisal tools like maps, calendars, matrices and diagrammes. The method beliefs that literacy can be at the heart of development, and therefore uses Participatory Rural Appraisal [PRA] tools.

• The people learning to read and write are called participants, not learners.
• The group of participants attending the REFLECT meetings is called a circle.
• No primer or curriculum is handed over to participants.
• The facilitators are provided manuals/guide based on identified issues in the communities.
• The graphics are constructed on the ground to allow everybody to see what is going on.
• Picture cards are used and participants are encouraged to make an attempt at drawing the features placed on the ground. This is the first attempt at reading and writing.
• Graphics are transferred by facilitator on to a large sheet.
• Participants are encouraged to copy the graphic [no matter how slow or poor they may be] into their exercise books.
• Reading and writing is then based on the graphics.
• Supplementary reading materials are encouraged in the REFLECT circles.
• Discussions should lead to some action points for development.

School for life is perhaps the only NGO that organises functional literacy programme for children. The programme has been operating in five [5] districts in the Northern Region of Ghana on pilot basis. School for life, is operated by a Ghanaian NGO by the same name and a Danish NGO named Ghana Venskabsgrupperue or Friendship Association.

Due to the educational gap that exists in the north, it is difficult for government to fulfil its obligation to secure basic education for all. The SFL functional literacy programme assists in improving the basic education in the programme area through a number of functional literacy activities among children between ages 8 to 12 participating in the programme. Due to socio-economic reasons, children in these areas are drafted into the family’s labour force. The girls engage in trading and do the household chores, while the boys in the family assist in various forms of farm activities. SFL organises functional literacy skills in reading, writing, numeracy and other topical issues for these target groups.

The objectives of the SfL include

1. enhancing the capacity of children in the mother tongue through literacy, as well as in practical applicable skills related to their daily involvement in socio-economic activities of their families.
2. To increase awareness among parents in the programme area for the need to educate their children. To reduce the general reservations about education by parents so as to allow their children to attend formal schools.

• To counter general reservations of parents against education, the curriculum deals with relevant skills needed on village level. This is done through the development of adequate teaching materials with focus on life-skills and functional literacy in the indigenous languages [Dagbani, Anufo, Basare and Likpakpaalu]. Life-skills deals with recognizable aspect of everyday life for the children in the communities. For example, participating children learn about basic sanitation, prevention of diseases and protection of the environment.
• Teaching time is scheduled for afternoons in order to allow children to carry on with their socio-economic activities.
• Class size is kept at 25 children to allow more interaction between children and facilitators.
• Make use of existing classrooms of formal schools where available, but in communities where there are no formal schools, SfL assists in building school structures under a Self-Help Pool. Communities contribute 25% and SfL 75% of expenditure for infrastructure.
• To ensure uniform pedagogical approach among facilitators, a 3 week intensive training is given and further refresher courses are given at intervals.
• Relevant teaching and learning materials are supplied free to SfL classes.

• A total number of 5,797 children in 5 districts got integrated into the formal school system in classes 2 to 4 after the 1^st three years. The breakdown is 3,322 boys and 2,475 girls.
• A greater number of children who would not have gone to the formal schools are now in formal schools.
• Awareness has been created and the notion that nothing can come out of education has been disproved.
• Even though there is still a slight reluctance in the enrolment of girls in the formal schools, there is relatively high response on the part of SfL classes.

• Many of the formal schools in the programme area lack teachers and textbooks and therefore do not function effectively. Children therefore drop out after being enrolled in them.
• Even though a greater proportion of the SfL graduates would have wished to continue in the formal schools, most of the communities where this programme operates do not have formal schools to absorb them.
• Extreme poverty of some parents do not allow them to send their children to the formal schools because of uniforms, textbooks demanded by the schools.

• Many children who are enrolled in the SfL programme will be given the opportunity of formal education.
• Members of the target communities would have understood and appreciated the value of education and begin sending their school going age children to school.
• Facilitators would acquire skills in functional teaching.
• Teaching materials and literature in the operational indigenous language have improved.