UK-based NGO Sabre Education has been recognised with the Khalifa International Award for its pioneering work in scaling play-based kindergarten education across Ghana, improving outcomes for over 361,000 children.
Sabre Education, a UK-based non-governmental organisation focused on early years teaching in Ghana, has won a Khalifa International Award for Early Learning for its work on play-based kindergarten education. The award, presented by the Khalifa Award for Education, recognised the organisation in the Best Programmes, Curricula, and Teaching Methodologies and Practices category.
The award body said it was impressed by the programme’s scientific and practical approach to early childhood care, as well as its emphasis on learning environments that support children’s social, educational and emotional development. It also said the initiative reflected the award’s wider aim of promoting work that can identify and nurture young children’s talents at an early stage.
Sabre Education says its model has been scaled across Ghana’s public system and is now reaching more than 30,000 kindergarten teachers. The organisation says the programme is intended to improve classroom practice by helping teachers move away from rote learning and towards play-based methods that encourage curiosity, creativity and exploration. Sabre also says the work has reached more than 361,000 children and has helped build a more child-centred approach to early education.
Susan Place Everhart, chief executive of Sabre Education, said the group works with governments across Ghana and sub-Saharan Africa to strengthen early childhood education. She said the programme was designed to tackle weak learning outcomes in Ghana, where 62% of children still lack foundational literacy skills by the end of Primary 2. Sabre has used a training-of-trainers model, through which education officials are prepared to support kindergarten teachers, while school leaders are given tools to mentor staff and embed gender equality and inclusive learning.
Everhart said the programme’s influence has extended into policy, with the Government of Ghana involving Sabre in early childhood education reforms. She added that the organisation’s approach helped shape an in-service training manual for kindergarten teachers, which was adopted as a national standard in 2023.
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