Japan's Initial Experience with Technical Development Cooperation in Basic Education : A Case in Ghana

Abstract

This article describes several features of an in-service teacher training (INSET) project for science and mathematics teachers in basic education (grades 4 - 9) in Ghana. This project is an example of Japan's initial experience with technical development cooperation in basic education. Some of the major features of the project are as follows. 1) As a new comer in technical cooperation in basic education Japan was very careful about where to intervene and finally chose science and mathematics education in the belief that these subjects are relatively culture and value free and because Japan has a well-developed education system in this area. 2) INSET was chosen believing that Japan has a well established INSET system and because visible results are expected to come about more quickly than by intervening in pre-service training. 3) In providing INSET a ‘cluster' rather than a ‘cascade model' was adopted. 4) Project goals were clearly specified and quantified. 5) In order to sustain the achievements by the project, a strong emphasis was placed on capacity building of Ghanaian INSET providers through training in Japan and the institutionalization of INSET in order to create a system to utilize these human resources and spread INSET nationwide. Although over the last ten years Japan has been supporting seven major technical cooperation projects for basic education exclusively in science and mathematics education, it is too early to judge whether it has been successful as the impact of these projects on students is yet to be determined.

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