By Eric Appah Marfo, GNA
Accra, April 23, GNA – Key stakeholders in Ghana’s education sector have pledged their firm commitments to integrating Gender-Responsive Pedagogy (GRP) into Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET).
The commitments, made at the close of a two-day Gender Responsive Pedagogy for TVET Popularisation Forum on Wednesday, centred on embedding gender-sensitive teaching into curricula, strengthening institutional policies, and expanding faculty training.
Others pledged to improve data systems and ensure sustained monitoring to translate policy into practice, promote inclusive learning, improve participation and ensure equitable outcomes for all learners, particularly women and persons with disability.
The programme was organised by the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) Ghana Chapter with support from the Mastercard Foundation to promote the adoption of Gender Responsive Pedagogy for TVET.
The initiative aims to improve equity, enhance learning outcomes and expand access to quality skills development, particularly for young women and disadvantaged learners, while fostering collaboration among policymakers, regulators and institutions.
Dr Lydia Takyi, the Head of Centre for Business Incubation and Innovation at the University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development (USTED), said the institution would scale up its Gender Responsive and Inclusive Pedagogy (GRIP) programme across more institutions nationwide.
She said USTED had already partnered with about 40 institutions, organised into zonal clusters and trained over 30 faculty members, but acknowledged that the current reach was insufficient.
Dr Takyi said the next phase would focus on cascading the training to more institutions and faculties, while introducing junior and senior GRP ambassadors among students and lecturers to drive sensitisation, monitoring and grassroots implementation.
She said the university’s model, which focused on Agricultural TVET (ATVET), deliberately targeted male-dominated areas such as tractor operation and heavy equipment handling, with the aim of creating safe and supportive environments for female participation.
Mr Joseph Mensah Oti-Asirifi, the Executive Secretary of the Vice-Chancellors of Technical Universities of Ghana, said technical universities had committed to integrating gender responsiveness into institutional policies, manuals and academic frameworks.
Vice-Chancellors would take leadership of the process, including placing gender responsiveness on the agenda of their meetings, strengthening sensitisation at faculty and departmental levels, and engaging student leadership to promote inclusive academic environments.
Mr Oti-Asirifi said the next Vice-Chancellors’ meeting would table gender responsiveness as a key agenda item, with representatives expected to present feedback and progress reports from their respective institutions.
He said institutions would also coordinate with gender and disability units to monitor implementation and ensure that the initiative did not become “a talk shop” but translated into measurable outcomes.
Mr Oti-Asirifi highlighted the need for stronger data tracking and research, particularly on female enrolment, retention, completion, employability and access for persons with disability.
He noted that advocacy for gender responsiveness and disability inclusion often came without direct financial incentives, urging stakeholders to remain committed despite limited rewards.
He further called on corporate Ghana and development partners to support universities, describing gender-responsive and inclusive education as resource-intensive and beyond the capacity of institutions alone.
Mr John Dadzie-Mensah, Director for Policy Planning, Research Monitoring and Evaluation at the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), said the Commission would review institutional gender policies and accreditation systems to ensure GRP was embedded at all levels of programme design and delivery.
He said GTEC would assess whether existing gender policies adequately addressed pedagogy and support institutions to integrate gender-sensitive approaches into curricula, course design and teaching methods.
“On our part as a regulator, we also have to look at our instruments for doing accreditation and see whether we have enough provisions to check at the pedagogy level how gender issues have been infused,” he said.
“If we realise that our instruments are inadequate to contain those ones, we also have to revise our instruments to respond to the institution’s action appropriately.”
Mr Dadzie-Mensah urged the move beyond policy to implementation, adding that regulators must ensure institutions translate commitments into practice.
He raised concerns about emerging trends in tertiary education, where female participation was increasing relative to males, and encouraged further research to understand the underlying factors and ensure balanced participation.
Dr Eric Amoah, Deputy Director-General, Technical Services at the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) outlined a roadmap to institutionalise gender-responsive pedagogy across all levels of education.
He said NaCCA would undertake curriculum audits from kindergarten to tertiary level to eliminate gender bias, standardise GRP toolkits nationwide and ensure early introduction of gender-responsive principles to break stereotypes.
The Council would also promote teacher capacity building through pre-service and in-service training, review national assessment systems to ensure fairness, and collaborate with stakeholders to monitor impact.
He said NaCCA would advocate resource allocation and work with partners to ensure gender-responsive pedagogy became a permanent feature of Ghana’s education system.
GNA
Edited by Agnes Boye-Doe
22 April 2026