Parents in the classroom | Early childhood development | Thrive in Conversation | Ghana

Over the past two decades, Ghana has achieved near-universal enrolment of children in two years of preschool. However, significant quality challenges persist, with fewer than half of preschool-aged children developmentally on track in literacy and numeracy. These issues are particularly marked in rural and high-poverty areas. The NGO Lively Minds (LM), founded in 2008, has developed a parent-powered Play Scheme that aims to improve young children’s learning and development in rural communities. A Ghana Education Service-Lively Minds parenting course, delivered by teachers through existing government systems, trained mothers in rural communities to provide quality early childhood development both at home and at preschool. A research team carried out a randomised controlled trial (RCT) of the LM programme in rural preschools in Ghana between 2017-2019, to study the impact on children and participating mothers. In this Thrive in Conversation webinar, Alison Naftalin, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Lively Minds and Sonya Krutikova, Deputy Research Director, Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) discuss the RCT findings and implications with Adisa Tassa, Director for Early Childhood Education, Ghana Education Service and Thrive Deputy Programme Director Marlies Morsink. The scaling journey of this parent-powered Play Scheme, and the role of evidence in the process, will be explored along with the potential next steps. www.thrivechildevidence.org