Ghana Targets Foundational Learning for 13 Million Children by 2030 – Veep Opoku-Agyemang

Vice President launches 2026–2040 agenda, with national test data showing over a third of Primary Four pupils below basic proficiency in English and maths.

ACCRA, Nov. 11 — Vice President Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang has set a 2030 target to significantly improve foundational literacy, numeracy and psychosocial development among children aged four to eight, launching a long-term agenda she said is essential to Ghana's economic ambitions and to reducing the grip of circumstance on a child's future.

Speaking at the launch of the 2026–2040 Foundational Learning Agenda at the British Council in Accra on Wednesday, Opoku-Agyemang said the initiative was intended to strengthen the foundations upon which children's subsequent education and future opportunities depended .

"A fundamental truth is that our education system cannot succeed if our children cannot read, write or count confidently," she said .

The agenda targets approximately 13 million children in public and low-fee private schools, with improvements to be measured across gender, geographical location, ability and socio-economic circumstances .

Stark Data Behind the Push

The launch came against a backdrop of national assessment data showing persistent learning gaps. Lydia Essuah, Chief Director of the Ministry of Education, disclosed that in the 2024 National Standardised Test covering nearly 473,000 Primary Four pupils, approximately 35 per cent performed below basic proficiency in English Language, while 38 per cent recorded similar results in mathematics .

An assessment of nearly 315,000 Primary Six pupils in mathematics found about 38 per cent performing below the expected proficiency level .

"These results tell us that many pupils need support at both stages," Essuah said. "We must act early and decisively" .

Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu put Ghana's overall literacy rate at approximately 78 per cent, against a global figure of about 98 per cent. He noted that literacy among those aged 15 and below stood at about 91 per cent, which he described as encouraging but insufficient .

Ghanaian Languages in Early Literacy

Among the proposed interventions are curriculum revisions to give Ghanaian languages a stronger role in early literacy instruction. Opoku-Agyemang said the programme would be piloted before wider implementation, subject to Cabinet approval, and expressed support for the approach .

She linked foundational learning directly to Ghana's economic trajectory, arguing that industrial development, agricultural processing and enterprise growth all require a workforce capable of learning, reasoning and applying knowledge.

"An economy that produces more of what it consumes, processes more of its agricultural outputs and develops competitive industries requires people who can learn, reason, adapt and apply knowledge in practical ways," she said .

On equity, the Vice President observed that children enter school with vastly different levels of preparation, with some having access to learning resources at home while others depend largely on their schools. Strong foundational education, she said, would help ensure that "a child's future opportunities are not determined so heavily by the circumstances into which that child was born" .

Minister Urges Patience

Iddrisu cautioned against judging the agenda's success within a political cycle. "I'll disappoint you if you think that you want to measure the success of a Minister for Education in two, three, or four years. In a decade," he said .

He assured development partners, particularly the British government and UNICEF, of Ghana's commitment to working with them, and said the government was realigning education investment to prioritise foundational learning .

The launch featured the unveiling of the Foundational Learning Ecosystem Framework and strategic documents, the handover of learning materials, the inauguration of the National Foundational Learning Working Group, and the signing of a National Foundational Learning Compact .

Background

Ghana has expanded access to basic education substantially over the past three decades, but learning outcomes have lagged. The World Bank-funded Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP) has supported teacher training and play-based learning reforms, while a 2023 University of Cape Coast study found teachers lacked adequate competencies in inclusive, engaging and adaptive pedagogies .

The 2026–2040 agenda represents an attempt to consolidate those efforts under a single framework with measurable milestones. The 2030 target is positioned as an interim benchmark, with the full agenda running until 2040.

Opoku-Agyemang, a former Education Minister and University of Cape Coast vice-chancellor, has championed foundational learning since assuming office. Her involvement gives the agenda a degree of political weight that previous literacy initiatives have lacked, though whether it translates into sustained financing and classroom-level change will depend on implementation over the coming decade.

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The launch was held under the theme "Foundational Learning: The Bedrock of Ghana's Sustainable Future."