Policy Brief: Trends, Gaps, and Policy Recommendations for Strengthening Ghana’s Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Research Ecosystem to Improve the Quality of Education
Ghana’s education system has undergone various policy reforms, including the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education policy and competency-based curricula. However, gaps persist in research funding, collaboration, and thematic focus, limiting the ability to generate context-specific solutions for improving FLN outcomes. The limited attention to numeracy research hinders the development of comprehensive interventions that address both literacy and mathematical competencies.
While Ghanaian researchers have contributed to FLN knowledge, most of these studies remain unpublished in indexed journals, reducing their visibility, accessibility, and impact on international and regional policymaking. Additionally, research outputs often fail to integrate gender and inequality factors, overlooking crucial dimensions of inclusive education.
This policy brief is part of Education Sub Saharan Africa (ESSA) and the REAL Centre at the University of Cambridge's collaborative efforts (with funding from the Gates Foundation) to fill these gaps by enhancing the visibility of FLN research, fostering networks among researchers, and promoting evidence-based policymaking. The policy brief mainly synthesises key findings from a bibliometric analysis of FLN research in local journals and repositories in Ghana1 and provides actionable recommendations to strengthen the research ecosystem.
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