About
This case study documents the Ministry of Education’s journey in Ghana towards making better use of data to guide policy and practice, and highlights how EdTech Hub has supported them throughout this process.
EdTech Hub delivered a detailed systems map of the Ministry’s Accountability Dashboard, showing where data originates, how it is stored, and which stakeholders use it. This mapping exercise pinpointed integration opportunities and technical barriers, providing a roadmap to improve interoperability across systems.
To ensure the dashboard met real-world needs, we conducted in-depth research with a diverse group of education stakeholders, including school heads, district education officers, and Ministry officials. These interactive sandbox sessions created a space to test the dashboard and observe how users engaged with data tools in the context of their day-to-day decision-making. The research surfaced user preferences, capacity needs, and feature requests, which informed the development of a low-fidelity prototype. The prototype was then tested and validated with users to refine functionality and design before further development.
EdTech Hub will also be running a sandbox to identify an implementation model to increase dashboard utilisation, while exploring its potential application for EdTech in climate emergencies.
Our work is ongoing, and additional updates will be added to this page as the project progresses.
Planned Activities
2023
Planning, and initial research
A data governance situational analysis conducted in 2023 by EdTech Hub in collaboration with the Reform Delivery Unit, with respondents from thirteen MoE agencies and departments, including the MoE itself.
The situational analysis provides essential insights into the institutions’ staff perceptions of data governance aspects, specifically, data vision and strategy, data governance structure and key roles and responsibilities, data rules, controls and accountabilities, and implementation roadblocks.
2024
Case study and learning
EdTech Hub reviewed Ghana’s efforts on using technology to improve decision-making by using data.
The case study is the first in a series documenting the journey of Ghana’s Ministry of Education towards the effective use of data to guide its decision-making for policy and practice.
2025 – 2026
Sandbox and testing
EdTech Hub is supporting the MoE conduct sandboxes with stakeholders and use the insights to develop a fit for purpose accountability dashboard. We are also working with the software developers by reviewing designs and testing the dashboard.
EdTech Hub is also conducting a Landscape Analysis of the Special Education Needs in Ghana that support the SpED of MoE and development partners.
What’s Next?
The Ministry of Education is making significant strides in strengthening its national data system and has worked to convene development partners’ programmes around this important initiative. To lay the foundations for accelerated progress in the coming period, the Ministry could focus on further institutionalising data governance by agreeing upon a ministry-wide data vision and purpose, and developing a data strategy. Through its engagement with the Reform Delivery Unit, EdTech Hub has been involved in initial conversations to develop a plan for this institutionalisation process. Data management practice quality improvements are ongoing, with building in-house technical capacity and rolling out a data glossary with common identifiers as key priorities. Fostering collaboration and compliance across the MoE and its agencies and departments will be essential. This case study is the first in a series capturing the MoE’s journey towards evidence-based, informed policy and practice. The study establishes the case for investing in data governance and data management practices to support the Ministry’s ambitions to improve learning outcomes, reduce education inequalities, and strengthen education system accountability through more evidence-based decision-making. The case study provides background into the opportunities and challenges facing the Ministry as it builds a fit-for-purpose national education data system, based on principles of local ownership and responsibility.
In line with the Ministry of Education’s and EdTech Hub’s collaboration plan, subsequent case studies will focus on two areas:
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- Data management capacity development processes
- How the MoE is fostering stakeholder engagement and uptake by utilising user-based design principles.
An analysis of the Ministry’s Performance Management and Data Visualisation (PMDV) project implementation process will provide rich experiences to inform these upcoming case studies.
