Our Work

Teach2Teach International works to transform lives in marginalised and hard to reach communities though high-quality training and education. Our projects are dual impact, consolidating community-based strategies for inclusive and adaptive education for girls, children with disabilities, mainstream students and out-of-school children transitioning into mainstream school. We also facilitate talented but unemployed young people to become community volunteer teachers and future leaders. Our transformative programs create a multiplier effect for young people to become independent, leaders of social change in their local communities.

“Teach2Teach International is a force for good in the world and the Community Volunteer Teacher Programme is making real change in Northern Ghana.”

Mary Chinery-Hesse, Chancellor of the University of Ghana

Watch Cudjoe, a Community Volunteer Teacher, talk about the impact that T2T has had on his life

Cudjoe reflects on his experience at the end of the CVT programme

Our work is endorsed by multiple services including the University for Development Studies and Ghana Education Services (GES).

Click here to see MP Lord Boateng praise our work.

The needs we meet

Teach2Teach International (T2T) responds to four social needs:

• 80% of schools in Ghana are underperforming

• A severe lack of employment opportunities for young people, with youth unemployment as high as 48%. This leads to rural-urban migration and slum-dwelling, and early or forced marriage

• Poor basic education provision, leading to huge class sizes of up to 200, and critical teacher deployment and absenteeism issues

• In the Northern region only 16% of grade six students are proficient in mathematics, and only 35% are proficient in English

• Poor basic academic attainment for the most disadvantaged children, with literacy among primary school-age children as low as 9%

• Lack of opportunity for women and persons with disabilities, both for students in education and for young people after leaving education

Who we work with

Challenging inequalities through improving access to education is at the heart of what T2T works to achieve. We work to address inequalities ensuring an intersectional, inclusive approach to education. Gender Equality and Social Inclusion is a key pillar of all our programmes, inclusion being integrated into our recruitment, training and teaching processes. T2T supports targeted education that addresses the specific needs of each child. We address different layers of marginalisation and exclusion such as those due to gender, disability, geographic locations and ethnic discriminations, by identifying the systemic and structural barriers that affect the inclusion of these groups and working to increase access to education for all, ensuring “No child is left behind”.

Teach2Teach is committed to gender inclusion at all levels in the areas where we work. We integrate intersectional approaches and gender mainstream our programmes, inclusion is incorporated into our recruitment and safeguarding practices and our training manual. The CVTP is an equal opportunities programme, which means we pay particular attention to ensuring that the needs of girl students and young women CVTs are catered for. In all our undertakings, we privilege the needs of women, girls and non able-bodied students.

“Before the Volunteer teachers, there were very few pupils in class because some children, like my friends would not come to school. But now, thanks to the CVT’s, we all like coming to school because our teacher is friendly towards us, everyone now enjoys going to school.”

Amina, Primary 5 Student.

T2T’s approach to gender inclusion includes:

• Commitment to raising the profile of the value of girls education in communities

• Recruiting a high percentage of female community volunteer teachers to become role models within their communities

• Training CVTs in gender-sensitive learning approaches

• Promoting education for young women and girls which is proven to directly lower the chances of women engaging with early and forced marriage

• Lowering dropout rates for young women and girls through training in inclusive practices

• Helping young women and girls become independent and promote sustainable livelihoods

• Promoting positive leadership and advocacy for other female students

“As a woman being in the T2T program I feel honoured and respected in my community” - Hassan Rahamatu, Community Volunteer Teacher

“One striking impact is the feeling of contributing to the educational development of my community. Most girls in the community now see me as a role model and looking up to me for guidance. My presence in the classroom now gives hope to a lot of hopeless girls who felt education was for boys alone. It has also motivated most parents to enrol their young girl in school”

Mumuni Balkisu, Community Volunteer Teacher

Community Engagement

T2T goes beyond simply training teachers and students. We are committed to high levels of community and multi-level local stakeholder ownership, support and adoption through training and engagement. T2T trains headteachers, qualified teachers and improves teacher quality and accountability which boost enrolment, retention and attendance rates among students and teachers. Our holistic approach ensures that all beneficiaries are able to take local ownership of programmes.

T2T supports communities by:

• Increasing the value of education within communities meaning communities are more motivated to send children to school

• Building community resilience through increased knowledge of health and well-being strategies disseminated through our CVTs

• Increasing agency and voice for communities in relation to education

• Engaging communities to hold schools accountable for high-quality education

• Working with community leaders to ensure local ownership of programmes

T2T work intensively with parents, community elders and traditional leaders, local authority officials and the GES (Ghana Education Service) to help build a community of solidarity around permanent change, keeping children in school and supporting their CVTs.

“The CVT programme has completely changed the way we see things. Most parents now feel confident to allow their children to go to school because there is a teacher there to teach them”

Mba Alhassan, Local Community Leader.