Implemented By:
[EVALUATION REPORT]
September 2017
Funder: USAID/GHANA
Evaluator:
Kavaarpuo, A.V. Eric
USAID/GHANA PARTNERSHIP FOR 
EDUCATION: [Promoting Transparency and 
Accountability in Education-PTAE]
Funder: USAID/GHANA, Promoting Transparency Accountability in Education-PTAE Evaluation Report, 2017. i
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This final evaluation of the 18-month Promoting Transparency and Accountability in Education
project (PTAE) was commissioned by the Northern Network for Education Development 
(NNED). The project was funded by USAID and implemented from March 2016 to 
August 2017. The project focused on bridging information gap between education managers 
at district and school levels on one hand, and citizens (including communities, parents and 
civil society groups) on the other. It sought to use experiences/practices of the 
Global/Ghana Partnership for Education Grant (GPEG) as entry point for assessing the 
provision of education inputs and resources and as well audit on-going education 
interventions in schools of Northern Ghana.
The evaluation employed the recommended OECD DAC criteria of relevance, effectiveness, 
efficiency, impact and sustainability to evaluate project. The evaluation was carried out 
between September and October 2017. The evaluator reviewed the PTAE project 
document,M&E Plan, activity reports and sector-related documents before proceeding to 
conduct interviews and administer questionnaires to project stakeholders. Semi-structured 
questionnaires were developed and administered on district education offices, school heads 
and selected teachers, whilst Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were conducted with school 
pupils (boys and girls) and parents (SMC/PTAs). The evaluation targeted all 3 regions of the 
North where the project was implemented, sampling 16 districts and 128 schools (64% of 
project schools) out of 25 project districts and 200 schools. In the Northern Region 8 
districts were sampled out of a total of 15 project districts; and 4 districts each sampled from 
the Upper East and West Regions where the project was implemented in 5 districts each
respectively. Data collectors were deployed to each of the 8 selected districts of Northern 
Region and same for each of the 4 districts of the Upper East and West Regions.
Findings
Relevance
The PTAE project is extremely relevant as a social accountability intervention for NNED, 
its members and partners, as well as the state. The project interrogated the provision of 
education resources for the intended beneficiaries – children - and in so doing, brought to 
focus, the critical role of the respective education stakeholders – civil society and 
communities on the demand side and education managers on the supply side- in ensuring 
adequate supply of school inputs and resources for the delivery of quality learning outcomes.
The project contributed to bridging existing information gaps between education managers 
at district and school level on one hand, and citizens (including civil society, communities 
and parents) on the other, in respect of education inputs and resources. NNED used the
PTAE project to build on previous education resource monitoring and tracking experiences 
at district and school levels. The project reinforced government’s desire to evaluate increased 
investments in the education sector against the quality of learning outcomes to justify further 
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investments. This desire was amplified in the 2017 Education Sector Annual Review (ESAR) 
theme, ‘’Strengthening Accountability for results’’ which sought to highlight 
government’s priority of improving upon learning results in return for the huge investments 
in the education sector. Going into the future, government has identified the required 
capacity needs of the education sector to include education data and performance 
management. The PTAE project was thus an urgent response to increasing state and civil 
society demand for greater accountability in the delivery of education services to ensure that 
learning outcomes match investments in the sector.
Effectiveness
The project significantly delivered on its objective of raising awareness about the provision 
and management of education resources among 270 Civil Society Organizations/ groups 
(CSOs) and education managers of 25 districts and 200 schools. It contributed to increasing 
accountability and responsiveness of the involved districts and schools in the provision and
management of education resources. The project helped to deepen project stakeholder 
understanding of the mechanisms for delivering education resources at national and local 
levels and how to improve upon that.
The education resource tracking in 200 target schools focused on 1. Physical resources –
textbooks, furniture, ICT equipment etc; 2. Human resources- teacher supply and conduct at 
school; and 3. Financial resources (1GPEG until close of 2016) and Government of Ghana 
(GoG) capitation grants. The tracking revealed, for instance, inadequate textbooks (in 
Mathematics, Integrated Science, English Language, Ghanaian Language, Information 
Communication Technology (ICT), among others). An average of 3 children shared 1
textbook in many of the schools. This was despite a nationwide supply of textbooks in 2013. 
Indeed, textbooks that were available were near unusable and needed immediate 
replacement. The tracking revealed that of the 200 schools, 160 of them did not have 
sufficient furniture owing to poorly constructed dual desks often supplied by central 
government- transported from Accra to districts and schools. GoG capitation grant receipts 
were short of expected transfers and many school heads did not know the actual grant 
amount per child transferred into school account.
The PTAE project provided opportunity for the capacity of education managers at district 
and school level to be built in respect of keeping an eye on education resources – receipts, 
utilization and management. Parents and community stakeholders were enlightened on the 
type and quantum of resources expected in schools. The evidence of education resource 
tracking was used to highlight the shortcomings in education management both at district 
and school levels. Data management, monitoring and supervision of schools were some 
underlying gaps identified by the tracking exercise. These revelations contributed to renewed 
commitment by education managers (at district and school level) to be much more 
accountable and to adhere to management requirements for securing school inputs and 
 
1Ghana Partnership for Education Grant
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resources. Parents and community members, notably School Management Committees 
(SMC/PTAs) were enlightened on the inadequacies in the supply of school inputs and 
resources and their role in both managing available resources and demanding local 
authorities to provide resources that were unavailable.
Efficiency
The project was evaluated to have been implemented economically and efficiently. The 
management structure promoted efficiency in delivering on results as the NNED Secretariat 
in Tamale provided oversight responsibility to the management of the project. The Lead 
Agencies – NOYED in Northern region, HAYTAFORD in Upper West and Link 
Community in Upper East- were the direct project implementers and reported on their 
activities quarterly, to NNED Secretariat. The tracking of school inputs and resources was 
deployed through the Lead Agencies down to the District Education for All Teams
(DEFATs)- who together with others- undertook the tracking exercise in the target schools.
A total of $441,012 (68.05% of budget) was allocated to project activities and was deployed 
to the 25 districts of 200 schools. The said amount was allocated to execution of the 
education resource tracking exercise in schools and directly benefited over 200,000 children. 
It further extended capacity strengthening to about 250 district education managers, over
1,250 community people (including parents), gaining knowledge and information about 
resource requirements and management in schools, and about 270 CSOs gaining further 
insights about education inputs and resources. In terms of direct unit cost of operations –
estimated by dividing total activity budget allocation by beneficiaries ($441,012/200,000) -
the project spent $2.202
(equivalent of GHS9.92) on each child in terms of influencing to 
improve upon the provision and management of education resources in schools. This unit 
cost of operations is quite efficient given the fact that the extended benefits of the project go 
far beyond the estimated 200,000 children of the 200 target schools. 
Challenges and Constraints
1. Project Start-up
• Project activities began late and therefore some partners were not adequately oriented 
to understand project intentions due to time constraints. For instance, some school 
communities did not benefit from pre-intervention sensitization activities.
2. Operational challenges
• The duration of the project (18 months) was quite short for such a vital education 
social accountability project. Project stakeholders believed that an average of 3 years 
was needed to enhance awareness raising and learning, on both supply and demand 
side of education inputs and resource provision. This would have deepened evidence-
 
2Using a conservative dollar to cedi exchange rate of $1 USD = GHS4.5
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based policy implementation dialogue among stakeholders and increase transparency 
and accountability in the management of education resources.
• Some target school communities were generally difficult to access due to their 
geographic location and even though this helped to register better, the needs of those 
communities, it was also challenging to make the desired impact within the short 
duration of the project.
• Tracking of education resources did not significantly highlight gender issues and 
children with special needs. A longer project duration or a back-up project would 
have helped to target and address the needs of girls and children with special needs.
3. Attitudinal challenges
• The project was challenged by a wrong notion by some education managers and 
citizens that it ought to have brought direct benefits to their institutions. This was 
exhibited at district and school community level and require a total reorientation to 
reverse.
• In addition to some District Directors of education reluctantly cooperating during 
project implementation, same was experienced during evaluation- some refusing to 
provide the needed information to support assessment of project intervention.
• It was the excuse of some District Directors of education who hesitated to provide 
information that they needed to seek clearance with higher authorities before 
volunteering such information. This practice ought to change in the wake of 
increased demand for transparency and accountability in the delivery of education by
both government and civil society.
• Some school heads were reluctant in sharing information on financial resources of
their schools and this perhaps tended to mirror the weak transparency and 
accountability in the management of school resources.
4. Education Management challenges
• With government capitation grant allocation and releases, it was realized that not only 
did some districts receive amounts far short of what was anticipated, other schools 
had their entitlements lodged in banks unknown to them or in rural banks they were 
unaware about. 
• Even though tracking of school inputs and resources disaggregated data by sex, little 
attention was given to children with special educational needs. Focusing on such 
children could help delineate their needs for special interventions to achieve inclusion 
and equity in the provision of school inputs and resources.
• Centralized procurement of school inputs such as furniture was largely cited as the 
reason for weak and broken down furniture in many schools.
5. Monitoring and Supervision of schools
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• Fuel and vehicles for monitoring schools by District Directors of education was 
highlighted as the underlying factor responsible for weak monitoring and supervision
of schools. It was thus the reason school enrolment data and the quantities of inputs 
and resources could not be regularly assessed resulting in inadequacies in the schools.
Lessons and Learnt
1. Regular monitoring and auditing of school inputs and resources:
• District Education Directors, Statistics officers (Monitoring and Evaluation officers), 
District Store keepers ought to move beyond receiving and collating data on 
enrolment and school inputs and resources, to conducting periodic audits of these 
resources at district and school levels. This approach will help stem some negative 
attitudes exhibited – such as doctoring of data- by school leadership.
2. Intensified Educational Social Accountability Mechanisms:
• Social accountability is essential for reawakening both citizens and government about 
each other’s expectations. The PTAE project provided the needed platform for 
dialogue between communities and district authorities. It helped to renew stakeholder 
commitment to support education delivery. Intensifying such practice will enable 
GES directors who have a tendency to resist demand for accountability, to reconsider 
their stance.
3. Empowering communities to demand accountability
• When communities are empowered about what education resources ought to be 
provided schools, who provides it, when and how such resources are to be managed, 
they will become much more engaged with their schools. They are not only 
knowledgeable to demand accountability but are willing to support provide support 
to the school to enable their children receive the best of education. The evaluation 
learnt that before the PTAE intervention in the target schools, many SMCs were 
quite dormant but after enlightening parents about the inputs and resources required 
in the school and their role as parents, they became much more cooperative and even 
began initiating self-help projects in support of their schools.
4. Responsiveness of District Authorities towards demand for accountability
• Education managers tend to be much more accountable when citizens demand 
accountability from their stewardship. Both implementation of the PTAE project and 
evaluation process (including regional validation) revealed that education managers at 
district and school level are prepared to open-up to citizen demand for accounting 
for their delivery of education, when they are engaged consistently. It is against this 
background social accountability in the education sector ought to be intensified.
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5. Procurement of school inputs and resources
• National level procurement of school inputs and resources tend to constrain the 
ability of district level management to monitor delivery of right quantities of the 
resources provided. Decentralized procurement of some inputs such as furniture 
would be helpful in ensuring both the quality and right quantities of the inputs
delivered to schools.
Recommendations
1. Capacity Strengthening of Education Service Providers
• Regular- and where possible- annual capacity strengthening sessions are required to 
not only refresh education service providers at district and school levels of their 
mandate to be accountable to the people they serve, but also to enable them inculcate 
the culture of transparency and accountability in their practices.
2. Record keeping at district and school levels
• Data continuous to be both an accountability tool and an approach to effective 
development planning and management. In the Ghana Education Service data 
continuous to be a nagging challenge at school and district levels. This data challenge 
is also a reflection of the degree of transparency and accountability in the service. 
Prioritized attention for record-keeping and data management will help make the GES a much more 
professional and efficient state institution.
3. The Use of Social Accountability Tools/Approaches to assess provision and 
management of education resources:
• NNED and partners ought to consider deepening their knowledge and skills of 
education-specific social accountability activities. They should consider using specific 
approaches/tools of social audits, Community Score Cards, Expenditure 
Tracking Surveys etc to generally assess responsiveness of duty-bearers on one 
hand and the satisfaction of citizens on the other.
4. Partnership between Education Service Providers and Civil Society:
• In order that civil society efforts are not construed as actions motivated by a‘money￾making’ agenda, there ought to be a formal relationship between CSOs and education 
service providers. CSOs could initiate such as formalized relationship at the national 
level so it permeates down to local levels to ensure that public service providers 
formally recognize the vanguard role of CSOs as the mouthpiece of citizens in 
contributing to transparency, accountability and efficiency in the provision of 
education services. Indeed CSOs ought to be seen by state agencies as providing a neutral and yet 
counterbalancing role to the power of the state.
5. Prioritization of Girls and Children with Special Needs: 
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• the evaluation found tokenism in the approach to inclusive education delivery. 
Respondents widely indicated an inclusive approach to delivering education but the 
needs of Girls and Children with Special Needs were not prioritized by both district 
and school leadership as recommended in the Inclusive Education Policy. It will be 
extremely progressive for NNED and its partners to reprioritize engagements with the district 
education offices- focusing on girls and children with special needs among others. Segregating data on 
children with special needs as already done for girls, will help to target them with social interventions.
6. Logistics for Civil society organizations
The NNED-USAID education social accountability project revealed the need to ensure 
true independence of civil society to be able to counter-balance the power of the state. 
Inadequate resources to monitor and track education resources in school communities 
on one hand, and capacity strengthening of citizens (CSOs, parents etc) on the other,
constrained the project’s intention to raise awareness and increase transparency in the 
provision of education resources. A longer project duration accompanied with logistics (such as 
means of transport) could adequately empower CSOs to engage both district and community education 
authorities on equal footing, to promote accountable management of education resources. 
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Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .............................................................................................i
List of figures ................................................................................................................ix
List of Tables.................................................................................................................ix
1.0. CONTEXT............................................................................................................1
2.0. BACKGROUND AND PROJECT DESCRIPTION ......................................... 2
2.1. Project Assumptions............................................................................................................2
2.2. PTAE Project Overview.....................................................................................................3
3.0. METHODOLOGY AND APPROACH.............................................................. 4
3.1. Evaluation Purpose and Framework.................................................................................4
3.2. Scope of the Evaluation ......................................................................................................4
3.3. Evaluation method and analysis.........................................................................................4
3.4. Limitation of Evaluation.....................................................................................................5
4.0. FINDINGS .......................................................................................................... 6
4.1. Introduction..........................................................................................................................6
4.2. Relevance...............................................................................................................................6
4.3. Effectiveness.........................................................................................................................7
4.4. Efficiency ............................................................................................................................15
4.5. Impact..................................................................................................................................16
4.6. Sustainability .......................................................................................................................17
5.0. CHALLENGES AND CONSTRAINTS ...........................................................18
6.0 LESSONS AND LEARNT.................................................................................19
7.0 RECOMMENDATIONS .................................................................................. 20
CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................21
ANNEXES................................................................................................................... 22
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List of figures
Figure 1: Enrolment by Region: ........................................................................................................9
Figure 2: Teacher Supply by Regions .............................................................................................10
Figure 3: Upper West Teacher Supply……………………………………………………..11
Figure 4: Upper East Teacher Supply.............................................................................................12
Figure 5: GPEG/Capitation Grant Transfers...............................................................................13
Figure 6: SMC/PTA Capacity Strengthening ................................................................................15
List of Tables
Table 1: Civil Society groups/organizations..................................................................................14
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LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS
Abbreviations Meaning 
CSO Civil Society Organizations
CWD Children with Disability
DAC Development Assistance Committee
DDE District Director of Education
DEO District Education Office
DEFATs District Education for All Teams
ECCD Early Childhood Care and Development
DFID Department for International Development
EFA Education for All
ESAR Education Sector Annual Review
FGD Focus Group Discussion
GES Ghana Education Service
GoG Government of Ghana
G-PASS Girls Participatory Approach to Student Success
GPE Global Partnership for Education
GPEG Ghana Partnership for Education Grant
HAYTAFORD Harnessing Youth Talents for Rural Development
M&E Monitoring and Evaluation
MDGs Millennium Development Goals
MTIP Medium Term Implementation Plan
NNED Northern Network for Education Development
NOYED Net Organization for Youth Education and Development
OECD Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
PTA Parent Teacher Associations
PTAE Promoting Transparency and Accountability in Education
SDG Sustainable Development Goals
SMC School Management Committees
UPE Universal Primary Education
USAID United States Agency for International Development
USD United States Dollars
1.0. CONTEXT
The Government of Ghana (GoG) through the Ministry of Education is about concluding a
new3 Education Strategic Plan(ESP 2018- 2030) in 2017. This ESP is meant to align the 
sector’s priorities with the newly adopted education-related global goals, Sustainable 
Development Goals (SDG 4)/Education 2030 agenda as well as incorporate the new 
government’s vision for education. The new government’s vision for education includes
among others, a redefinition of Basic Education to include Senior High School, emphasis on
Technical/Vocational Education and Training, whilst encouraging parents and guardians to 
assume their responsibility for social upbringing and parental control of their children. The 
ESP (2018-2030) intends to particularly focus on inclusion and equity in the delivery of 
education as espoused in SDG 4: Ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promote 
lifelong learning opportunities for all. It will hopefully further align with the new Continental 
Education Strategy for Africa (CESA, 2016-2025) within the Africa Agenda 2063 
framework.
Dramatic changes in education policy priorities are expected in the new ESP. These will 
likely include a revision of the primary school curriculum to focus on the 4Rs of Reading, 
Writing, Arithmetic and Creativity Skills; develop standards in literacy and numeracy; 
design common national assessment to test and measure progress; introduction of history of 
Ghana and French with Arabic as optional.
The revised ESP with new policy priorities is further expected to feed into the 2015 
Education Bill – also still under revision- which aims to devolve education management and 
delivery from national to local levels in fulfilment of Ghana’s decentralization and local 
government system. To this end, Ghana secured a Global Partnership for Education Grant 
(GPE) of $442,772 in July 2017 to help 1. Strengthen existing sector analysis of the new 
(ESP, 2018- 2030) and 2. Provide technical assistance to finalize the ESP and Medium Term 
Implementation Plan (MTIP, 2018-2021).
In terms of financing existing basic education, government has increased capitation grant by 
100% (from GHS4.50 to GHS9.00) and additionally introduced a base grant to accompany 
it, in a bid to replicate what pertained in the Ghana Partnership for Education Grant 
(GPEG). 
From the foregoing, the implication for Civil Society organizations and networks including 
the Northern Network for Education Development (NNED) is repositioning, to not only 
play a vanguard role in the formulation and implementation of government policies but
also gain the confidence of the state as a relevant partner. 
 
3Ghana is at a third revision of its Education Sector Planning (ESP). The first ESP was 2003- 2015, initiated in response to adoption 
of MDGs and EFA goals; the second was ESP 2010-2020 in response to the new Education Reforms of 2007 which brought into 
being- the Education Act 2008 (Act 778). The current revision (ESP 2018-2030) is in response to adoption of the new global SDGs as 
well as education reforms being initiated by the new government (2017-2020). This new ESP will ultimately feed into promulgation of 
the 2015 Education Act meant to not only devolve education from central to local levels but align education with Ghana’s local 
government system.
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2.0. BACKGROUND AND PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The Northern Network for Education Development (NNED) initiated the ‘Promoting 
Transparency and Accountability in Education (PTAE)’ project as a civil society 
response to existing challenges confronting the education sector in Ghana, in spite of great
strides made at the close of the deadline (2015) for pursing education-related Millennium 
Development Goals (MDGs 2 & 3) and the Education for All (EFA) goals. Enormous gaps
continued to exist within the education-focused goals -Early Childhood Care and 
Development (ECCD), Universal Primary Education (UPE), Gender Parity and the 
Quality of Education. The identified gaps and challenges included physical and socio￾cultural barriers to access, disparities in accessing schooling; the poor quality of learning 
outcomes; inefficient use of education inputs and resources as well as poor management and 
governance measures to ensure that schools and administrators are accountable for 
delivering the desired education services in line with expectations.
The PTAE project intervention entailed tracking of education resources from national to 
school levels, assessing timelines of resource releases, utilization and management for 
optimum benefit of school children.
2.1. Project Assumptions
Key assumptions underpinning project design and implementation included:
• Greater citizen participation within the context of resource provision in schools
alongside a well-structured governance system will ultimately lay the foundation for 
optimum delivery of education services.
• Increased resource allocation from the Global Partnership for Education Grant 
($75.5million USD) in addition to Government of Ghana’s (GoG) own allocations to 
districts and schools will adequately resource deprived schools to deliver quality teaching 
and learning.
• Other pre-conditions which guided project execution included functional education 
management structures; clear channels for administering education resources; 
distinguishing between budgetary allocations and fund releases; sustained monitoring, 
feedback and advocacy etc.
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2.2. PTAE Project Overview
Project time line March 2016 - August 2017 (18-month project)
Evaluation 
period
September 2017
Location of 
implementation
The 3 regions of Northern Ghana: Northern Region – 15 districts; Upper
West – 5 districts and East Regions – 5 districts
Project partners 25 Districts of Ghana Education Service (GES) offices, 200 schools, 
community members, Parent Teacher Associations, District Education for All 
Teams (DEFATs), Regional Lead Agencies and NNED member organizations
Overall goal To fulfill the right of deprived children to quality basic education in Northern 
Ghana 
Project 
Objectives
1. To increase the awareness and involvement of 270 local civil society 
members and 1250 parents from 25 districts in the management of 
Education resources in Northern Ghana
2. To promote accountability and responsiveness of 250 district GES 
managers in Education resources management
3. To promote adherence to effective mechanisms for channeling education 
resources from central government to decentralized offices in Northern 
Ghana
Project strategies • Consensus building with diverse actors in education for a shared agenda
• Mass mobilization and active citizens’ action on Education Resource 
management
• Increasing local CSO capacity to engage duty-bearers
• Providing evidence on the transfer and availability of education resources 
(with emphasis on GPEG) and their use
• Packaging, documenting and publicizing the evidence
• Interface dialogue to lobby and bring change
Expected results • Increased awareness about school resources, interest and ability of 89 
CSO members in proactively dialogue over GPEG resources
• Improved and accountable management of education resources
(with emphasis on GPEG and capitation grant) resulting in improved 
teaching and learning outcomes in 25 project districts and 200 school 
communities in Northern Ghana
• 80% of project districts and 70% of project schools adopt pragmatic 
measures to address bottlenecks of education resources
• At sector wide and national level, there is increased adherence to more 
efficient mechanisms for channeling funds to decentralized structures 
• Alternative perspectives (through lessons learnt from NNED project)
on the performance of GPEG and other forms of education resources 
available and enriching education development in Northern Ghana
Project Budget $ 648,000 USD
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3.0. METHODOLOGY AND APPROACH
3.1. Evaluation Purpose and Framework
The purpose of the evaluation was to 1) assess achievement of project objectives within 18 
months of implementation; 2) assess the status of education resource provision before and 
after project intervention with a focus on financial resource disbursement, management and 
utilization; 3) identify lessons learnt and support in project result documentation; and 4) 
assess sustainability of the project intervention.
The evaluation sought to elicit both qualitative and quantitative results within the 18-month 
period of implementation. The findings and lessons learnt from the project are thus based
on the assumptions behind project design, and assessed using the Organization for 
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Development Assistance Committee 
(DAC) criteria of relevance, effectives, efficiency, impact and sustainability. 
Overall, the evaluation was guided by the following overarching questions:
1. How was education resource monitoring and tracking done to strengthen accountability
in the management of school resources?
2. To what extent did the NNED- USAID-funded Education Social Accountability project 
help address education resource provision and management needs of districts and 
schools?
3. To what extent did the project contribute to increased awareness, interest and ability of
right holders (CSOs, parents, etc) to dialogue with duty-bearers on the management of 
education resources?
4. What steps were taken by districts to address identified bottlenecks in the provision, 
utilization and management of education resources
5. To what extent was the project designed and managed to ensure value-for- money whilst 
achieving desired optimum results?
6. What specific changes or improvements can be attributed to the NNED-USAID Social 
Accountability intervention?
3.2. Scope of the Evaluation
The evaluation targeted all 3 regions of the North where project was implemented. A total of 
16 districts and 128 schools (64% of project target) were purposively sampled across the 3 
regions. In the Northern Region 8 districts were sampled out of a total of 15 project 
districts; and 4 districts each sampled from the Upper East and West Regions where the 
project was implemented in5 districts each respectively. 
3.3. Evaluation method and analysis
After contracting for evaluation, the NNED secretariat met with consultant to reinforce the 
content and scope of evaluation. The evaluator then proceeded to do a desk review of 
project documents and progress reports. The desk review covered the PTAE project 
document, M&E Plan and activity reports and sector-related documents.
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At district level, open-ended questions were administered to District Education Offices of the 16 
sampled districts to elicit information on physical, human and financial education resources. 
District Directors of Education (DDE), Accountants and officers in charge of Planning and 
Statistics responded to various aspects of questionnaires. The district office responses helped 
to give an overview of education inputs and resource flow to schools as well as how same 
were being managed. School heads self-administered their questionnaire and provided
specific quantitative and qualitative information about school inputs and resources￾particularly financial resources- received in the last 2 years (before and after project 
intervention), their utilization and management. Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were
conducted on mixed groups of boys and girls in the 128 schools to assess their awareness of 
school inputs and resources provided for their benefit. FGDs were again used with 
SMC/PTAs to assess their participation in the provision and management of school inputs 
and resources.
At the national level, the budget division of the Ghana Education Service headquarters was 
targeted and interviewed – the lead budget officer and assistant- responded to evaluation 
questionnaire, giving indication of budget allocation and releases as well as procurement of 
school inputs and resources.
The evaluator used self-administered, open-ended questionnaire for NNED secretariat staff
and Regional Lead Agencies- Net Organization for Youth Empowerment and Development 
(NOYED) in the Northern Region, Harnessing Youthful Talents for Rural Development 
(HAYTAFORD) in the Upper West Region and Link Community Development (LCD) in 
the Upper East Region. These mainly served as key informants for the entire evaluation. The
evaluation was concluded with regional level stakeholder validation sessions in the 3 regions
where key findings (showing regional specifics) were highlighted to serve as feedback to 
education managers and also an opportunity to take on board inputs to enrich and finalize
evaluation report.
3.4. Limitation of Evaluation
The evaluation had some limitations. First, the most notable challenge which limited the 
evaluation process was initial outright refusal of some education offices to accept the 
evaluators. This resulted in delayed responses, even when appointments were reached. To 
the evaluators, this initial response was indicative of the degree and nature of responsiveness 
of education service providers in Ghana and thus served as input for the evaluation findings. 
It was further indicative of the degree of transparency and accountability which existed in 
the education sector. Secondly, scheduling meetings with GES Directors was challenging￾mainly due to their busy schedules, resulting in delayed planned interviews. The evaluator 
could not obtain some critical data on Government of Ghana (GoG) capitation and GPEG 
in some districts and schools due to poor record-keeping and this affected analysis meant to 
assess the provision, management and utilization of education resources.
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4.0. FINDINGS
4.1. Introduction
The evaluation identified the need to keep an eye on the fit between school enrolment and
corresponding supply of school inputs and resources. Observed declining enrolment in some
districts and schools reinforced this need. The supply of textbooks, Information 
Communication Technology (ICT) equipment were generally inadequate in the sample 
schools; qualified teachers were in short supply in rural districts; expected financial inflows 
to schools (notably capitation grants) were short of actual transfers. All the above justified 
the need for not only increased awareness among education managers and stakeholders but 
continuous dialogue on school inputs and resources.
The evaluation findings are presented in accordance with the assessment criteria of 
relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability. The overarching evaluation 
questions are answered under each of the assessment areas below.
4.2. Relevance
The Promoting Transparency and Accountability in Education (PTAE) project was 
assessed to be extremely relevant for NNED, partners (state and non-state) and the entire 
NNED membership. The project was a contribution to bridging existing information gap 
between education managers at district and school level on one hand, and citizens (including 
civil society, communities and parents) on the other, with regards education inputs and 
resources. For NNED the PTAE project provided opportunity to build on previous
education resource monitoring and tracking experiences at district and school levels. The 
experiences gained from the PTAE project will ultimately contribute to consolidating 
NNED and partners’ knowledge around education social accountability. The project also
advances government’s desire to achieve the needed learning outcomes from increased
investments in the education sector. This desire was amplified in the 2017 Education Sector 
Annual Review (ESAR) theme, ‘’Strengthening Accountability for results’’. The ESAR 
theme sought to highlight government’s priority of improving upon learning results in return 
for the huge investments in the education sector. To achieve this goal, government identified 
the required capacity needs to include education data and performance management.
From the foregoing, the PTAE project was an urgent response to increasing state and civil 
society demand for greater accountability in the delivery of education services to ensure that 
learning outcomes match investments in the sector. 4Social Accountability in the education 
sector is an emerging area of work for civil society in Ghana, and fortunately, leadership of 
the Ministry of Education and Ghana Education Service acknowledge the critical role of civil 
society support to increase transparency and accountability in the delivery of education 
 
4Social Accountability refers to actions, tools and mechanisms used by citizens and citizen groups (civil society, media, 
communities, beneficiaries etc) to hold public officers (service providers) accountable for their stewardship.
Funder: USAID/GHANA, Promoting Transparency Accountability in Education-PTAE Evaluation Report, 2017. 7
services by providing alternative monitoring mechanisms to provide evidence for the needed 
remedies.
4.3. Effectiveness
The stakeholders and implementers of the project scored it 80% in terms of executing 
planned activities and delivering on its objectives. This is an extremely positive assessment 
given the short duration of the project – 18 months. The significant footprints of the project 
ought to be sustained to ensure that education social accountability knowledge and 
information are widely accepted both by the demand and supply side of education delivery.
How was education resource monitoring and tracking done to strengthen 
accountability in the management of school resources?
One major tracking event was executed across the 200 target schools, and the findings
thereof shared with education stakeholders at community and district levels. Education 
resource monitoring and tracking focused on 1. Physical resources – textbooks, furniture, 
ICT equipment etc; 2. Human resources- teacher supply and conduct at school; and 3. 
Financial resources (5GPEG until close of 2016) and GoG capitation grants. Tracking these
resources was done with a pre-designed instrument. A tracking team comprising of 6district 
focal persons and 7District Education for All Teams (DEFATs) was constituted and given 
appropriate orientation to administer the tracking tool at district and school levels. On the 
supply side, District Education Office (DEO) staff provided the overall education resource 
envelop, supply and management, whilst school heads gave a record of supplies received and 
how these were managed. The level of community awareness and participation in the 
utilization and management of school inputs and resources was assessed through accounts 
of School Management Committees and Parents (SMC/PTAs), from whom information on 
their involvement in the management of school resources was elicited.
Highlights of education resource tracking findings across the target schools included 1. 
inadequate supply of textbooks, notably in Mathematics, Integrated Science, English 
Language, Ghanaian Language and ICT where 3 or more children shared a single textbook; 
2. Inadequate infrastructure (classrooms) and furniture; 3. Actual transfer of school grants
were mostly short of expected receipts, among others. The tracking revealed inadequate 
supply of core subject textbooks and the urgent need to fill that gap. The pupil to textbook 
ratio was averaged at 2 pupils to 1 core textbook. ICT equipment was generally lacking in all 
 
5Ghana Partnership for Education Grant
6District Focal Persons are identified by the NNED secretariat in every district to lead the activities of their lowest sub￾structure – DEFAT. These focal persons are often identified based on their capacity to ensure quality delivery and 
reporting on NNED’s activities.
7DEFAT is the lowest sub-structure of NNED. They are a multi-stakeholder group of religious reps, civil society, 
Teacher unions (GNAT/NAGRAT), women groups traditional authority etc with a keen interest on education 
development at the district level.
Funder: USAID/GHANA, Promoting Transparency Accountability in Education-PTAE Evaluation Report, 2017. 8
schools. In the project districts of the Upper West Region, there were 113 desktop
computers out of which 75 were in use. Again out of 115 laptops supplied to schools, only 
84 were in use. The challenges associated with ICT equipment included lack of electricity, 
battery problems, absence of ICT laboratories etc.
In terms of capacity strengthening in the management of school resources 78% of target 
schools increasingly appreciated the need to constitute GPEG management committees; 
67% of teachers increased their knowledge about the actual amount of financial resources 
each child was entitled to as a grant either from GPEG or GoG capitation grant.
To what extent did the USAID-funded Education Social Accountability project of 
NNED help address education resource provision and management needs of 
districts and schools?
The duration of 18 months was inadequate to immediately address the education input and 
resources supply gap but it helped to raise awareness about the gaps among a wide range of 
education stakeholders. The project raised awareness about judicious utilization and 
management of education resources as basis for demanding increased supplies. Awareness 
was raised among GES staff, District Assembly authorities, media houses, head teachers, 
SMC/PTA, traditional authority, District Education for All Team (DEFAT) members and 
local civil society organizations as sampled in table 1 below. The education resource tracking 
revealed that 160 of the target 200 schools had inadequate furniture and that was attributed 
to poorly constructed furniture which were largely centrally produced and supplied to the 
schools from beyond the districts. This experience called to question the practice of central 
government procurement of such bulky school inputs. Furniture will more easily be 
procured at the local level- district and even community level.
The tracking of education resources and their utilization and management in school helped 
to draw GES attention to prioritizing the needs of girls and children with special needs 
particularly in the utilization of financial resources. Under the Girls’ Participatory Approach 
to Student Success8 programme (G-PASS), most of the PTAE districts (except the regional 
capitals- Tamale, Bolgatanga and Wa) were beneficiaries. Girls were provided sanitary pads, 
fee subsidies and some material inputs under GPEG. The rationale behind this special 
intervention is to enhance retention and completion of girls in school. It is extremely important
for NNED and partners to advocate a continuation of the G-PASS programme by GoG to sustain and 
improve gender parity in basic schools.
The evaluation followed up on the critical areas/elements of school inputs and resource 
provisioning by central and local government and the ensuing presentation highlights the 
findings that further draw attention of education stakeholders on what to focus on in the 
management of schools.
 
8 G-PASS is part of DFID’s Accountable Grant Mechanism targeting girls, implemented by CAMFED-Ghana and 
under the GPEG intervention in both basic and Senior High Schools
Funder: USAID/GHANA, Promoting Transparency Accountability in Education-PTAE Evaluation Report, 2017. 9
▪ Enrolment in schools
The project helped education managers become critical at linking school enrolment with 
inputs and resources required. In spite of data challenges at district and school levels, figure 
1 illustrates a decline in enrolment in some target schools given the situation before the 
project in the 2015/2016 academic year and the situation during and immediately after
intervention, 2016/2017. In the Upper West region, the evaluation registered a decline in 
enrolment across the two academic years. Whereas boys’ enrolment across schools of the 
district declined from 52,036 (2015/2016) to 39,796 (2016/2017), that of girls declined from 
52,211 (2015/2016) to 39,463 (2016/2017). The Upper East and Northern regions witnessed 
similar declines. It is important that education managers, particularly at school level, keep an 
eye on enrolment figures to both understand whether indeed these are actual declines in 
enrolment or perhaps some mistakes in record keeping. If indeed the declines are real, 
further analysis could help unearth the causal factors. Nevertheless, on the face of the 
decline in enrolment one can easily attribute it to poor quality of learning outcomes in public 
schools resulting in a migration of children to private schools- as claimed by some 
respondents- but further analysis will be needed to establish the actual causes. Alternatively,
it could be explained that the pupils missing in the data are dropping out of school entirely, 
and that could be a much more serious situation to investigate.
Figure 1: Enrolment by Region:
Source: PTAE project evaluation, 2017
▪ Human Resources - Teacher Supply 
The evaluation assessed teacher supply as an important element of school inputs and 
resources with the view to ascertaining the extent to which education managers and 
stakeholders are mindful of the relationship between teachers and learning outcomes. In 
Boys Boys with
disability
Girls Girls with
disability
Boys Boys with
disability
Girls Girls with
disability
Enrolment 2015/2016 Enrolment 2016/2017
52,036
1582
52,211
452
39,796
355
39,463
244
12568
335
18341
211
13289
339
19095
213
14,173
0
13,401
0
13,874
0
13,359
0
Enrolment from Directorates by Region
Upper West Northern Upper East
Funder: USAID/GHANA, Promoting Transparency Accountability in Education-PTAE Evaluation Report, 2017. 10
terms of teacher supply the project helped to highlight the need for equitable deployment of 
teachers across districts and school communities. 
Figure 2 presents teacher supply by districts, aggregated by regions and figures 3 and 4 
presents peculiar issues of teacher supply in the Upper West and East Regions. The regional 
presentation of teacher supply (figure 2) reveals a decline in numbers of trained male
teachers in the Northern region from 274 males (2015/16) reducing to 269 (2016/17) and 
female teachers increasing marginally from 170 (2015/16) to 183 (2016/17).
Figure 2: Teacher Supply by Regions
Source: PTAE project evaluation, 2017
The significance of focusing on teacher supply and showing a regional distribution based on 
learning from the PTAE project is to highlight the importance of analyzing teacher supply as 
an integral part of education inputs and resources, which education managers ought to be 
sensitive towards – in the determination of learning outcomes.
Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female
Trained Teachers
2015/2016
Untrained Teachers
2015/2016
Trained Teachers
2016/2017
Untrained Teachers
2016/2017
Teacher Supply
274
170
68
22
269
183
57
20
115
64 51 38
127
92
47
31
66 69
34 44
81 86
21
41
Teacher Supply by Regions
Northern Upper East Upper West
Funder: USAID/GHANA, Promoting Transparency Accountability in Education-PTAE Evaluation Report, 2017. 11
Figure 3: Upper West Teacher Supply
PTAE Project Evaluation, 2017
In figure 3 Wa Municipality had many more trained teachers- particularly female teachers 
compared with other districts. For instance whereas Wa Municipality had 872 female 
teachers, Nandom had 136 and Wa- West 127.The chart presents Wa-West and Nandom 
districts as much more deprived in terms of teacher supply and thus justifies further analysis 
both at district and regional levels for special interventions to ensure that these districts do 
not lack the required number of teachers to ensure quality of learning outcomes.
Trained Untrained Trained Untrained
Male Female
737 432
872
363 218 72 136 93
543 360 127 239
Upper West Teacher Supply
Wa Municipal Nandom Wa West
Funder: USAID/GHANA, Promoting Transparency Accountability in Education-PTAE Evaluation Report, 2017. 12
Figure 4: Upper East Teacher Supply
Source: PTAE Project Evaluation, 2017
Figure 4 shows teacher supply in target schools/districts of the Upper East Region. Bawku 
West for instance had fewer female teachers compared to the 3 other districts. Builsa North 
experienced a decline in male teachers over the 2 years and Nabdam experienced an increase 
in trained teachers (male/female) between 2016 and 2017 compared to the 3 other districts
of the project. 
▪ Financial resource transfers 
The transfer of financial resources were highlighted during tracking of GPEG and GoG 
capitation grant and this evaluation sought to verify the findings of the tracking exercise by 
engaging district directorates of education and target schools on their expected receipts and 
actual receipts of the two grants. In figure 5,with the exception of 2017 where both GoG 
capitation grant and GPEG did not have adequate data, the remaining years from 2014 to 
Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female
Trained Teachers
2015/2016
Untrained
Teachers
2015/2016
Trained Teachers
2016/2017
Untrained
Teachers
2016/2017
42
28
9
7
49
42
10
6
24
17
21
17
21
27
22
12
24
16
14
9
31
20
10
8
25
3
7
5
26
3
5 5
Upper East -Teacher Supply
Nabdam Builsa North Kassena Nakana Bawku West
Funder: USAID/GHANA, Promoting Transparency Accountability in Education-PTAE Evaluation Report, 2017. 13
2016 show that expected GPEG receipts tended to match with actual receipts and 
sometimes exceeded expectations, whilst in the case of capitation grants the expected 
receipts hardly matched the actuals. Further interrogation of the difference between 
expectations and actual transfers revealed that about GHS3.4 of GoG capitation grant
actually got to school out of the GHS4.50 budgeted per child per year. The remaining 
amount of GHS1.1 was deducted from the GHS4.5 per child as sports and cultural levies 
and shared between the district, regional and national levels. The GoG capitation grant 
transfers were not only short of expectations but were delayed for up to half a year. It was 
therefore unsurprising that the inadequacy of the grant coupled with delays resulted in 
school authorities having to charge some unapproved levies to enable them cover their cost 
of administrative operations. The practice of unapproved charges is unacceptable given that the capitation
grant scheme is a social intervention meant to lessen the burden on parents in providing for the school needs of 
their children. Advocacy for sustained funding of the grant is urgently required to ensure timely releases to 
avert any emergency measures by school authorities to recover the needed funds.
Figure 5: GPEG/Capitation Grant Transfers
Source: PTAE Project Evaluation, 2017 Expected Actual Expected Actual Expected Actual Expected Actual
Expected
Actual
Expected
Actual
Expected
Actual
Expected
Actual
GPEG
Received
2014
Capitation
Received
2014
GPEG
Received
2015
Capitation
Received
2015
GPEG
Received
2016
Capitation
Received
2016
GPEG
Received
2017
Capitation
Received
2017
GPEG/Capitation Grant Received
GPEG and Capitation Grant Disbursement from 
Directorates by Region
Upper West Northern Upper East
Funder: USAID/GHANA, Promoting Transparency Accountability in Education-PTAE Evaluation Report, 2017. 14
To what extent did the project contribute to increased awareness, interest and ability 
of right holders (CSOs, parents, etc) to dialogue with duty-bearers on the 
management of education resources?
The project was quite effective in targeting and reaching its target group. By targeting 25 
districts of the three regions of the North, half of the entire area (Northern Ghana) was 
targeted and reached – given that there are currently a total of 50 districts in Northern 
Ghana. This included all Directors of Education and the frontline Directors of the 25 
districts. Again all school heads of 200 schools, SMC members, and other teachers among 
others. 
The education input and resource tracking findings helped to raise awareness among school 
children, community members (SMC/PTAs and traditional authority) on the demand side. 
On the supply side, district authorities at both District Assembly Administration and 
Education office were informed of some inadequacies in their role as administrators of 
education resources. The findings helped to promote dialogue between citizens (community 
members and duty-bearers (district authorities).
The project collaborated with a wide range of civil society members of NNED, partners and 
collaborators as highlighted below in table 1.
Table 1: Civil Society groups/organizations
Civil Society Organization Region
Regional Advisory, Information and Network System (RAINS),
Northern Sector Action on Awareness Centre (NORSAAC),WUZDA,
Savana Signatures, Lively Minds, CARD, Tisogmitaba Integrated 
Development Association (TIDA), Partners in Participatory 
Development (PAPADEV), CALID, ISODEC-Tamale, NOYED, 
CRISS, PAMBE- Ghana, Choice-Ghana Maltiti Child foundation, CFC, 
Christian Children’s Fund of Canada (CCFC), Ghana Communities 
Developing Association (GDCA), School for Life (SLF), Crate Change, 
YARO, East Gonja Civil Society Association (EGOCSA), 
PAGBILA(Women And Youth Development Association), CEPACD, 
Integrated Development Centre, Forum for Transparency Development 
Alternatives (FORTDA-GHANA), Community Partnership for Youth 
and Women Development(CPYWD)
Northern Region
HAYTAFORD, EDUFUND, Pronet North, Save Ghana, CDF, 
Sungbawiara Foundation (SBF)
Upper West 
Region
LCD, AfriKids, BONATADO Upper East Region
Source: PTAE Project Evaluation, 2017
The sample CSOs represent a critical mass of like-minded organizations who can together 
support increase transparency and accountability in the delivery of education, beyond the 
PTAE project. By way of illustration figure 5 shows that majority of the SMC/PTA 
Funder: USAID/GHANA, Promoting Transparency Accountability in Education-PTAE Evaluation Report, 2017. 15
members contacted in the sample schools acknowledged the impact of the project on their 
knowledge, skills and information gained about education resource management at the 
school level. This is a significant step to ensuring self-governance of schools by communities 
especially in view of plans by government to increase financial resources to schools. It will 
also enable community people appreciate the degree to which central and local government 
transfers to schools are able to address school needs and any gaps that may exists.
Figure 6: SMC/PTA Capacity Strengthening
Source: PTAE Project Evaluation, 2017
Before the project majority (over 90%) of SMC chairpersons hardly participated in the 
disbursement of financial resources (GPEG/capitation) of the school. They were however 
either involved in conveying school resources such as school furniture supplied at district 
levels to the school or supported the construction of classrooms or urinals. Community 
members – notably SMCs increased their knowledge and awareness on how to hold school 
authorities accountable for resources provided them for the benefit of children. Community 
members themselves appreciated their role in the education of children and in the Meme 
school community (in the Kpandai district) a commitment was demonstrated by the 
community who passed a resolution on teenage pregnancy after the tracking revealed that 
girls were dropping out of school due to teen pregnancy.
4.4. Efficiency
To what extent was the project designed and managed to ensure value-for- money 
whilst achieving desired optimum results?
The project management structure promoted efficiency in delivering on project results. The 
NNED Secretariat in Tamale provided oversight responsibility towards the management of 
Northern
Upper East
Upper West
32
28
20
27
3
7
Regional-SMC/PTA Trained
NNED-USAID project provided traing on education resource management No
NNED-USAID project provided traing on education resource management Yes
Funder: USAID/GHANA, Promoting Transparency Accountability in Education-PTAE Evaluation Report, 2017. 16
the project. The Lead Agencies – NOYED in Northern region, HAYTAFORD in Upper 
West and Link Community Development in Upper East- were the direct project 
implementers and reported on their activities quarterly to NNED Secretariat. The tracking 
of school inputs and resources was deployed through the Lead Agencies down to the 
District Education for All Teams- who together with others- undertook the tracking exercise 
in target schools.
Whereas NNED issued policy briefs based on evidences from the tracking exercise from the 
200 project schools, the lead agencies delivered on campaigning at district and regional levels 
with evidences from schools within the districts to ensure public awareness on the type, 
quantity, regularity and associated challenges with school inputs and resources. This 
responsibility helped to empower the lead agencies beyond the lifetime of this project. The 
NNED Secretariat provided Monitoring and Evaluation services to the implementing 
partners by designing monitoring and tracking tools to guide execution of the PTAE project 
in school communities.
In terms of judicious utilization of project funds, the total of $441,012 allocated to project 
activities was deployed to the 25 districts of 200 schools. The said amount was allocated for 
execution of the education resource tracking exercise in the 200 schools, directly benefiting 
over 200,000 children. It further extended capacity strengthening to about 250 district 
education managers, about 1,250 community people (including parents) who gained
knowledge and information about the resources required in schools and their management, 
and about 270 CSOs gained further insights about education inputs and resources and 
utilization. In terms of direct unit cost of operations – estimated by dividing total activity 
budget allocation by beneficiaries ($441,012/200,000), the project spent $2.209
(equivalent of 
GHS9.92) on each child to improve upon the provision and management of education 
resources in schools. This is very efficient given the fact that the extended benefits of the 
project go far beyond the estimated 200,000 children in the 200 target schools.
4.5. Impact
What specific changes or improvements can be attributed to the NNED-USAID 
Social Accountability intervention?
The evaluation could not immediately identify project impact on beneficiaries, given its short 
duration, but could appreciate results that had potential to achieve significant impact. The 
monitoring/tracking of school resources challenged teachers who were hitherto not keeping 
accurate and up-to-date records to begin doing so. School authorities were further 
challenged to increasingly involve community members (SMC/PTA) in the management of 
school resources- particularly financial resources. A district director of education noted that 
‘’the project has put us on our toes’’ in view of the specific challenges revealed to be associated 
with the provision, deployment and management of school inputs and resources.
 
9Using a conservative dollar to cedi exchange rate of $1 USD = GHS4.5
Funder: USAID/GHANA, Promoting Transparency Accountability in Education-PTAE Evaluation Report, 2017. 17
The project provided a platform for community people to appraise school inputs and 
resources and to feedback to school authorities. Community voice was thus amplified. They 
are much more able to demand accountability from district and school authorities in view of 
new information and channels of communication on school inputs and resources. Some 
communities began demonstrating responsibility towards their schools by making instant 
contributions towards repair of broken furniture etc. A community (Meme in the Kpandai 
district) came out with a resolution to end teen pregnancy, a major barrier identified to be 
curtailing girls’ education. Some communities also made contributions towards putting up 
toilet facilities for their schools to promote hygiene. School pupils – the ultimate 
beneficiaries- were better informed to begin to be much more responsible towards taking 
care of school property – furniture, textbooks, etc.
The NNED evidence-based policy brief on education inputs and resources was not only 
effective at highlighting challenges confronting the management of education resources in 
the North, but was far reaching in terms of influencing decisions at the National Education 
Sector Annual Review (ESAR)2017 event in Accra, since content of the policy brief was 
presented to a wide range of education stakeholders.
4.6. Sustainability
The evaluation identified opportunities for sustaining action on the findings of inadequate 
school inputs and resources and instances of ineffective utilization and management of 
same. Sustainability could be achieved on two fronts: 1. District Education offices realized a 
lapse in their operations and were challenged to not only be critical in frequently assessing 
the physical, human resource and financial needs of their schools, but to keep an eye on the 
educational needs vis-à-vis enrolment, especially of geographically disadvantaged school 
communities; and 2. Attitudinal change by GES officers at the district office and school 
heads, in respect of data collection and management- particularly enrolment and 
accompanying information about school inputs and resources. These are key elements to 
improvements in the management of schools. Data quality for instance was identified to be a
huge challenge and the solution was largely hinged on attitudinal change and not just 
capacity- since certain inaccuracies related to school enrolment were related to deliberate
doctoring of information by teachers for purposes of taking undue advantage of provisioning
of school resource/inputs by local and central governments.
District Education Offices acknowledged findings of education resource tracking to be a 
true reflection of what pertained in schools and decided to sanction school heads and 
teachers found not to be delivering according to expectations. This reawakening was 
reinforced by the regional validation workshops of evaluation findings. The education 
resource tracking findings provided GES ample information to make formal requests to 
local and central government for adequate provision of resources. The revelation of lack of 
electricity and the need for it to power ICT equipment emboldened GES to approach 
Funder: USAID/GHANA, Promoting Transparency Accountability in Education-PTAE Evaluation Report, 2017. 18
District Assembly for support to connect schools to the national electricity grid. The 
provision of furniture, school buildings and accommodation for teachers were some needs 
identified as a result of the tracking to which GES initiated various processes to address.
Furthermore, GES leadership at district level initiated processes to appeal to communities to 
support with what resources they could, rather than sticking to the notion that government 
provided everything. GES appreciated the need to continually provide orientation for 
SMC/PTA to adequately play their respective roles in the management of schools.
5.0. CHALLENGES AND CONSTRAINTS
1. Project Start-up
• The start of project activities began late and therefore some partners were not 
adequately oriented to understand project intentions due to time constraints. For 
instance, some school communities did not benefit from pre-intervention 
sensitization activities.
2. Operational challenges
• The duration of the project (18 months) was deemed to be extremely short for such a 
vital education social accountability project. Project stakeholders believed that an
average of 3 years was needed to enhance awareness raising and learning on both 
supply and demand side of education inputs and resource provision. This would have 
deepened evidence-based policy implementation dialogue among stakeholders and 
increase transparency and accountability in the management of education resources.
• Some target school communities were generally difficult to access due to their
geographic location and even though this helped to register better, the needs of those 
communities, it was also challenging to make the desired impact within the short 
duration of the project.
• Tracking of education resources did not significantly highlight gender issues and 
children with special needs.
3. Attitudinal challenges
• Education Social Accountability is being challenged by a wrong notion by the 
populace that any action by a non-governmental organization at the local level ought 
to necessarily bring about direct benefits to them. This was exhibited at district and 
school community level and require a total reorientation to reverse.
• In addition to some District Directors of education reluctantly cooperating during 
project implementation, same was experienced during evaluation- some refusing to 
provide the needed information to support assessment of project intervention.
• It was the excuse of some District Directors of education who hesitated to provide 
information that they needed to seek clearance with higher authorities before 
volunteering such information. This practice ought to change in the wake of 
Funder: USAID/GHANA, Promoting Transparency Accountability in Education-PTAE Evaluation Report, 2017. 19
increased demand for transparency and accountability in the delivery of education by 
both government and civil society.
• Some school heads were reluctant in sharing information on financial resources to 
their schools and this mirrored the nature of transparency and accountability in the 
management of school resources.
4. Education Management challenges
• Resources were sometimes allocated at national level in Accra but did not eventually 
reach their intended target beneficiaries- particularly deprived districts of the North￾due to poor management and or structural bottlenecks. 
• With government capitation grant allocation and releases, it was realized that not only 
did some districts receive amounts far short of what was anticipated, other schools 
had their entitlements lodged in banks unknown to them or in rural banks they were 
unaware about. 
• Even though tracking of school inputs and resources disaggregated data by sex, little 
attention was given to children with special educational needs. Focusing on such 
children could help delineate their needs for special interventions to achieve inclusion 
and equity in the provision of school inputs and resources.
• Centralized procurement of school inputs such as furniture was largely cited as the 
reason for weak and broken down furniture in many schools.
5. Monitoring of schools
• Fuel and vehicles for monitoring schools by District Directors of education was 
highlighted as the underlying factor responsible for the weak monitoring of schools. 
It was thus the reason school enrolment data and the quantities of inputs and 
resources could not be regularly assessed resulting in inadequacies in the schools.
6.0 LESSONS LEARNT
1. Regular monitoring and auditing of school inputs and resources:
• District Education Directors, Statistics officers (Monitoring and Evaluation officers), 
District Store keepers ought to move beyond receiving and collating data on 
enrolment and school inputs and resources, to conducting periodic audits of these 
resources. This approach will help stem some negative attitudes exhibited – such as 
doctoring of data- by school leadership.
2. Intensified Educational Social Accountability mechanisms:
• Social accountability is essential for reawakening both citizens and government about 
each other’s expectations. The PTAE project provided the needed platform for 
dialogue between communities and district authorities. It helped to renew stakeholder 
commitment to support education delivery. Intensifying such practice will enable 
Funder: USAID/GHANA, Promoting Transparency Accountability in Education-PTAE Evaluation Report, 2017. 20
GES directors who have a tendency to resist demand for accountability to reconsider 
their stance.
3. Empowering communities to demand accountability
• When communities are empowered about what education resources are to be 
provided schools, who provides it, when and how such resources are to be managed, 
they become much more engaged with their schools. They are not only 
knowledgeable to demand accountability but are willing to support provide support 
to the school to enable their children receive the best of education. The evaluation 
learnt that before the PTAE intervention in the target schools, many SMCs were 
quite dormant but after enlightening parents about the inputs required in the school 
and their role as parents, they become much more cooperative and even began 
initiating self-help projects in support of their schools.
4. Responsiveness of District Authorities towards demand for accountability
• Education managers tend to be much more accountable when citizens demand 
accountability from their stewardship. Both implementation of the PTAE project and 
evaluation process (including regional validation) revealed that education managers at 
district and school level are prepared to open-up to citizen demand for accounting 
for their delivery of education, when they are engaged consistently. It is against this 
background social accountability in the education sector ought to be intensified.
5. Procurement of school inputs and resources
• National level procurement of school inputs and resources tend to constrain the 
ability of district level management to monitor delivery of right quantities of the 
resources provided. Decentralized procurement of some inputs such as furniture 
would be helpful in ensuring both the quality and right quantities of the input
delivered to schools.
7.0 RECOMMENDATIONS
▪ Capacity Strengthening of Education Service providers
Regular- and where possible- annual capacity strengthening sessions are required to not only 
refresh education service providers at district and school levels of their mandate to be 
accountable to the people they serve, but also enable them inculcate the culture of 
transparency and accountability in the provision of educational services.
▪ Record keeping at district and school levels
Data continuous to be both an accountability tool and an approach to effective development 
planning and execution. In the Ghana Education Service data continuous to be a nagging 
challenge at school and therefore district levels. This data challenge is also a reflection of the 
degree of transparency and accountability in the service. Prioritized attention for record-keeping 
and data management will help make the GES a much more professional and efficient state institution.
Funder: USAID/GHANA, Promoting Transparency Accountability in Education-PTAE Evaluation Report, 2017. 21
▪ The Use of Social Accountability Tools/Approaches to assess provision and 
management of education resources:
NNED and partners ought to consider deepening their knowledge and skills of education￾specific social accountability activities. They should consider using specific approaches/tools 
of social audits, Community Score Cards, Expenditure Tracking Surveysetc to 
generally assess responsiveness of duty-bearers on one hand and the satisfaction of citizens 
on the other.
▪ Partnership between Education Service Providers and Civil Society:
In order that civil society efforts are not construed to be actions motivated by a ‘money￾making’ agenda, there ought to be a formal relationship between CSOs and education service 
providers. CSOs could initiate such as formalized relationship at the national level so it 
permeates down to local levels to ensure that public service providers formally recognize the 
vanguard role of CSOs as the mouthpiece of citizens in contributing to transparency, 
accountable and efficient provision of educational services. Indeed CSOs ought to be seen by state 
agencies as providing a neutral and yet counterbalancing role to the power of the state.
▪ Prioritization of Girls and Children with Special Needs: 
The evaluation found tokenism in the approach to inclusive education delivery. 
Respondents widely indicated an inclusive approach to delivering education but the needs of
Girls and Children with Special Needs were not prioritized by both district and school 
leadership as recommended in the Inclusive Education Policy. It will be extremely progressive for 
NNED and its partners to reprioritize engagements with the district education offices- focusing on girls and 
children with special needs among others. Segregating data on children with special needs as already done for 
girls, will help to target them with social interventions.
▪ Logistics for Civil society organizations
The NNED-USAID education social accountability project revealed the need to ensure true 
independence of civil society to be able to counter-balance the power of the state. 
Inadequate resources to monitor/track education resource flow to school communities as 
well as adequately empower citizens constrained the project intention to raise awareness and 
increase transparency in the provision of education resources. A longer project duration 
accompanied with logistics including a vehicle could adequately empower CSOs to engage both district and 
community education authorities on an equal footing to promote accountable management of education 
resources. 
CONCLUSION
Evaluation of the PTAE project assessed the relationship between provision of school 
inputs and resources and learning outcomes. Even though with less emphasis on records of 
learning outcomes, the evaluation revealed that the GPEG grant provided greater financial 
transfers to schools in the right amounts and in a much timelier manner than the GoG
Funder: USAID/GHANA, Promoting Transparency Accountability in Education-PTAE Evaluation Report, 2017. 22
capitation grant. The evaluation revealed that judicious utilization and management of school 
resources was not only determined by adherence to guidelines for use of resources, but also 
increased community knowledge and involvement in the management of the said resources.
The project successfully build capacity and raised awareness of communities (SMC/PTAs of 
schools), civil society and education managers about the need to regularly monitor and 
provide adequate school inputs and resources, taking cognizance of school enrolment. It is 
the provision of the right quantities of school inputs and resources which eventually 
translate into quality of learning outcomes.
ANNEXES
Annex 1: Districts and schools visited
Northern Region
District Selected school community Remarks
1. Mamprugu-Moaduri Yagaba Circuit
1. YagabaJHS
2. Loari Primary
3. Sakpaba Primary
4. Prima Primary
Kubori Circuit
1. Kubori Primary B
2. Zanwura Primary
3. Yirangu Primary
4. Kubugu Primary
Deprived and new district
2. Mion District Sang Circuit
• Sang Islamic Primary
• Sang ZakariaJHS
• Sanjee EA Primary
• Burhanudeen Islamic Primary
Sambu Circuit
• Ligubilgo EP Primary
• Kanimo Primary
• Puriya EP Primary
• Sambu Islamic JHS
Deprived and new district
3. Tamale Metro Hospital road circuit
1. Bethel Primary
2. Dakpema Primary & JHS
3. Kukuo Zion Primary And JHS
4. AbubakariSadique Primary & JHS
Lamashegu Circuit
Old and urban district
Funder: USAID/GHANA, Promoting Transparency Accountability in Education-PTAE Evaluation Report, 2017. 23
1. Central Zaria
2. EP Primary
3. SDA Primary
4. Lamashegu Primary And JHS
4. Sagnarigu District Sagnarigu Circuit
1. Hatoub Islamic School
2. Sheshegu Zion 
3. Hillaliya Islamic Primary
4. Shemeya Primary
Kumbungu Road Circuit
1. ChoguYapalsi Primary
2. St. James Primary
3. 31st November JHS
4. Gurugu JHS 
New but urban district
5. Karaga Sung Circuit
1. Sung D/A Primary
2. Bagurugu JHS
3. Nyong E/A Primary
4. Tamalgu
Karga West
1. Ishadia E/A Primary/ JHS
2. Tung E/A Primary
3. Kupali D/A Primary
4. Binduli Methodist Primary
Old but deprived district
6. Kpandai District Kabonweli Circuit
1. Kabonweli Primary
2. Kabonwel Beposo Primary
3. Meme Primary
4. Wasawasa Primary
Kumdi Circuit
1. Kumdi Primary
2. KojoBoni Primary
3. Kumdi West Bang Primary
4. Kenglento Primary
Old but deprived district
7. Saboba District Saboba North Circuit
1. Gala EP Primary
2. Boakoln SDA JHS
3. Sobiba Primary
4. Saboba EP JHS
Natagu Circuit
1. Naboni Primary
2. Bitinbo Primary
3. Ugando Primary
Old deprived
Funder: USAID/GHANA, Promoting Transparency Accountability in Education-PTAE Evaluation Report, 2017. 24
4. Liful D/A Primary
8. Bole District Bole South Circuit
1. Kurabaso D/A JHS
2. Serekpe Prim/JHS
3. GbenfuJhs/Primary
4. Dakurukpe Prim
Bole West Circuit
1. Bole E/A Primary
2. Bole D/A Primary
3. Bale JHS
4. St. Kizito R/A Primary
Old district
Upper East Region
District Selected school community Remarks
1. Nabdam 1. Sakoti Primary
2.Zalerigu Primary
3.Pelungu Primary
4.Dasobiliga Primary
5.Dagliga Primary
6.Nangodi JHS
7.Kongo JHS
8.Logre JHS
2. Bawku West 1.Sapiiga Primary
2.Dagunga Primary
3.Tetako Primary
4.Kpantaligu Primary
5.Toende Primary
6.Yarigu JHS
7.Soogo JHS
8.Kansogu JHS
Old district
3. KassenaNakana West 1. Tedam Primary
2. Sirigu Primary 
3.Nakolo D/A Primary
4.Nabiu Primary
5.Nakong Primary
6.Christ The King JHS
7.Badunu JHS
8.Mirigu JHS
Old district
4. Builsa North 1.Nyansa Primary
2.Sandema Old Primary
3.Yipaala Primary
4. Chondema Primary
5.Namonsa Primary
6.Sandema JHS
New and deprived district
Funder: USAID/GHANA, Promoting Transparency Accountability in Education-PTAE Evaluation Report, 2017. 25
7.Chuchuliga JHS
8.Awulansa/Adabinsa JHS
Upper West Region
District Selected school community Remarks
1. Wa Municipal 1. Wa T. I. Ahmadiyya primary
2. Kabanye D/A primary
3. St. Andrews catholic primary
4. Limanyiri model primary
5. Wa Dobile R/C primary
6. Guli Primary
7. Kperisi Primary
8. Bamahu Primary
Old and urban
2. Nandom District 1. NaaPuorkua D/A primary
2. Nandom St. Paul primary
3. St. Andrews primary school
4. St. Maria primary
5. Nandom St. Cecilia primary
6. Vapuo Primary
7. Goziri Primary
8. Baseble Primary
New and deprived
3. Wa-West 1. Tannina Primary
2. Piisi Primary
3. Samanbo Primary
4. Poyentanga Primary
5. Ga Primary
6. Wechau DA Primary
7. Dabo Primary
8. Vieri Primary
Old but deprived 
4. Lawra 1. Zambo primary
2. Karbo D/A primary
3. Lawra Methodist primary
4. Lawra D/A primary
5. Yikpee primary
6. Donwine DA Primary
7. Boo Primary
8. Babile Primary School
Old district