Evaluating the national literacy acceleration programme on lower primary in the Upper West Region

Abstract

The study sought to evaluate the implementation of the National Literacy Acceleration Programme (NALAP) and to assess progress made so far after the implementation. This study again sought to assess how the teaching of language and literacy from the Kindergarten to primary three was implemented as a follow-up to the NALAP which is bi-literacy language programme and whether the methods, strategies and materials of NALAP were effectively used. It was also to investigate the extent to which NALAP helped to improve pupils’ literacy development and the challenges the programme might have encountered in the teaching and learning of language and literacy. The study focused on only lower primary teachers. The design was cross-sessional research design. Four instruments; namely, Questionnaire, interview guide, observation guide and document analysis were used for the data collection. The target population for the study comprised 1852 lower primary teachers of the Upper West Region with an accessible population of 656 and sample size of 100 teachers. Multiple sampling techniques such as quota sampling technique, purposive and simple random sampling techniques were used. Quota sampling technique was used to select 20 teachers from each district. Purposive sampling technique was also used to select five districts lower primary teachers among eleven districts. In addition, two teachers were also purposively selected from among the overall sample from each district for the interview and observation respectively. Simple random sampling technique was used to select four schools in each district with five teachers from each school. Two schools too were selected in each district for the document analysis. The results were analyzed using frequency tables and percentages. The findings revealed that NALAP was implemented to some extent in some schools but had a lot of challenges. The results again showed that there were NALAP teaching and learning materials are available in the schools but were insufficient (61%) and some schools had none at all. Recommendations were made for the provision of teaching learning materials, training of teachers in bilingual biliteracy methods of teaching to enable them teach language and literacy proficiently and in-service programmes for serving teachers in the system. And finally, suggestions were made for further studies.