ABSTRACT
This study sought to assess the improvements generated in teaching and learning because of new facilities provided in some basic schools in Shai-Osudoku District in the Greater Accra Region. These improvements and challenges were captured in the collective experiences shared by respondents- teachers and pupils reflect the gap between policy prescriptions for school resource provision and actual practices at school level. An exploratory and descriptive approach was adopted through the use of in-depth interview and questionnaires to collect data. (Qualitative and quantitative methods were used. In-depth interviews and questionnaires were administered on teachers, pupils and other key respondents). Results of the interviews and questionnaires from sampled schools (four schools) which were compared with controlled schools (three schools) that did not receive major facilities from 2009 to 2017 showed varied levels of improvement in teaching and learning environment. I discovered that schools that hitherto had to halt classroom activities because of rain or overcrowding in class have had marked infrastructure sufficiency. Thus, increasing contact hours for teaching and learning. Meanwhile, because the facilities provided did not include pre-school and JHS the schools are compelled to improvise in order to accommodate pre-school and JHS. Constant engagement with communities would increase a sense of ownership of schools which is necessary for infrastructure provision. It is also recommended that the power to allocative resources and interventions towards provision of basic education infrastructure be centralized at the district level so that district authorities can properly identify, plan and execute timeously the infrastructure needs of schools in Shai-Osudoku District. The experiences of teachers and pupils shared during this research would enrich literature on school facility and teaching and learning outcomes and also inform school infrastructure policy decision at school, district and national levels.
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
Background of Study
In recent times (after the global financial crisis of 2007-2008 which affected both national and donor countries), the challenge of quality education has been at the centre of discussion in development policies around the globe, especially in developing countries. This challenge has been captured by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A major developmental challenge in education is the absence of adequate, quality infrastructure in basic schools. It is therefore significant that the SDGs stress the need to ensure quality education through its goal number four
(4) which encourages nations to “Ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning”. Achieving quality education may be driven by a lot of factors. Among these factors are government dimension, teacher dimension, pupils dimension, community dimension, partners and donors dimension, the need for facilities, and the need for teaching and learning resources, among others. Within the government and community dimension falls the function of provision of infrastructure which is the focus of this dissertation. School infrastructure includes classroom level infrastructure (classroom, library, and science/ICT laboratory) and classroom characteristics (lightning, temperature, and air flow), classroom specific infrastructure (furniture, textbooks computers and science equipment) and school level infrastructure (electricity, potable water, and toilet, catering, sports fields and the condition of the building).
In their research on Latin American students, Murillo and Roman (2011), classified infrastructure into basic and school resources. Basic resources include portable water, electricity supply, sewage services and physical facilities for students and teachers whereas school resources include teaching
resources and learning materials for schools like textbooks and computers. In this study, I used the word infrastructure to refer to ventilated classrooms, library, ICT and science laboratories, toilets, fence wall, recreational/sporting grounds, water, electricity, catering and sanitation facilities, textbooks, furniture and other pedagogical materials, such as marker board/makers and Kindergarten worksheets that facilitate teaching and learning.
The need for infrastructural provision in Ghana has come to the lime light because of increasing enrollment in schools perhaps due to enlightenment and the fCUBE policy of the government (Foster, 1965; Scadding, 1989; Ghana Human Development Report, 1998). Again, in recent times, the health and safety of pupils at basic school level have also become issues of greater concern amidst incidents of school buildings collapsing leading to the death of pupils. It is, therefore, prudent that adequate infrastructural facilities are provided to ensure safety and comfort of schools to induce effective teaching and learning delivery in Ghanaian schools.
Owing to the above concerns for infrastructural provision, many countries are strategizing to provide the required infrastructure to enhance and improve their educational status. In Latin America, Murillo and Roman (2011) sought to investigate the incidence of school infrastructure and resource and how it affects primary school pupils. They found that availability of basic infrastructure and services do have effect on the performance of pupils in primary educational institutions in Latin America. Also, in rural China, Zhao and Glewwe (2009) undertook a study to find out what determines basic school attainment. Their findings concluded that providing a science laboratory is estimated to extend the years of schooling by 1.8 years. In a study across world regions and countries, Hanushek and Woessmann (2012) sought to answer the question: “do better schools lead to more growth”. Although their findings pointed to an independent relationship between growth and basic skills and high performer, they concluded that school policy can be an
important spur to growth. This means that good school policies, which include infrastructure policy on teaching and learning, is important for developing higher caliber human capital capable of contributing meaningfully to economic growth.
In examining published literature from 1990-2012 on the outcome of school infrastructure on student learning and enrolment with particular reference to Latin America, Cuesta, Glewwe and Krause (2015) concluded that there is evidence- though weak- in improvement in learning and enrolment with the provision of libraries, creation of new schools, toilets, laboratories and drinking water facilities. They therefore recommended high quality research to ascertain the outcome of infrastructure on learning and time in school in developing countries.
Whilst the above studies sought to relate school resource to specific attainable outcome at school level which feeds into national development, they did not focus specifically on how infrastructure/resource affects teaching and learning whose outcomes (the outcomes like attendance, enrolment, class/BECE results) were subjects for the above studies. Teaching and learning serves as a process through which resources allocated from education policy get converted into measurable outcomes like pupils’ performances in exams, skills and values acquired towards becoming productive citizens in spurring growth for national development. Thus, the apparent gap in knowledge about school resources and improvements in teaching and learning. This makes enquiry into the role infrastructure plays in improvements in teaching and learning critical, especially as teaching and learning serve as a link between allocative resource to schools and desirable outcomes expected. This study therefore seeks to explore the role of school infrastructure in improvements in teaching and learning.
