GES Assistant Director I (AD I) Promotion Exam Guide 2026: Format, Eligibility, Laws & Study Plan

GES Assistant Director I: what to prepare for in the 2026 cycle

Promotion from AD II to AD I advances a GES officer's rank. School leadership, SISO work and directorate assignments may require the administrative judgment covered here, but a promotion does not automatically appoint a headteacher, director, spending officer or disciplinary authority. Read the actual appointment and delegation in every scenario.

The 2026 advertisement hosted on GEDP and two images of a GES-letterhead notice dated 19 October 2026 (schedule and ID, page 1; formats and study areas, page 2) provide the cycle details below. The images are third-party GESHub mirrors, not files hosted on ges.gov.gh; we have not independently authenticated a first-party counterpart or established GEDP portal ownership from a current GES link. Confirm your personal admission, centre and any subsequent change with your GES office. This source limitation is different from evidence that a notice or policy does not exist.

120 minutes/75 items=96 seconds per item as an average, not an official per-item time limit. The notice's silence about a scoring rule or UCC's role cannot establish that GES has never issued any other policy. Use your admission instructions, not a commercial promise of a guaranteed 60% pass mark. The notice tells candidates to quote Staff ID and index number; it does not explicitly require a separate physical staff-ID card.

Use our independent free AD I practice questions, flashcards and cheat sheet for revision, checking dated rules against the sources below. These are not GES past papers or an official prediction of the live test.

Eligibility: ordinary and postgraduate routes

“Not before” allows equality; it does not mean strictly after. A certificate predating the previous promotion fails that advertised date condition. An approved degree is not a blanket two-year waiver or an automatic promotion. The advertisement's out-of-turn postgraduate wording refers to interviews; it does not establish that every applicant bypasses every other selection step. Its application window was 17 August–28 September 2026, so this is eligibility reference, not an invitation to submit a late application.

The eight notice areas and an applied revision framework

The mirrored notice lists eight broad areas, with no percentage weights on the two pages examined:

1. Knowledge of the Ministry of Education and Ghana Education Service
2. School and Classroom Management
3. Theories of Teaching and Learning
4. Curriculum Development
5. Assessment/Evaluation
6. Office Practices
7. Contemporary National and International Issues
8. Educational Administration and Management

The five teaching groups below organize revision across those areas. They are our editorial framework, not five official weighted domains. Do not neglect office practices or current national/international issues while studying the Acts.

Pillar 1: education structure, governance and regulation

Act 1049: structure, management and governing bodies

Read the original Pre-Tertiary Education Act, 2020 text (a mirrored legislative PDF), especially these distinctions:

• Section 1: Basic education is 2 years KG + 6 primary + 3 JHS = 11 years. Secondary education is 3 years SHS or 3 years TVET. These are two broad categories; SHS and TVET are alternative secondary pathways.
• Sections 2 and 4: District Education offices manage basic schools through Education Service/Local Government Service collaboration; Regional Education Directorates manage SHS; the TVET Service manages pre-tertiary TVET institutions. District Assemblies provide basic-school infrastructure. Section 4 does not itself assign all special education to Regional Directorates; inclusive-education duties appear in section 5.
• Sections 9, 31–32: GES manages human resources for basic/SHS delivery. District Directorates collaborate with Assemblies and religious educational units; Assemblies have specified public-basic-school and budget responsibilities. Decentralization is not an automatic transfer of teacher licensing or every employment decision to an Assembly.
• Section 10: The original Council has 12 members: chairperson; nine specified representatives; one female educationist; Director-General. Teacher associations share a rotating representative, not three permanent union seats. A 2026 Ministry statement reported by ISD describes a proposed faith-representation amendment; a proposal does not itself change the statutory list.
• Section 37: An SMC manages a public basic school; a Board of Governors manages a public SHS, under GES rules. A PTA/parent association supports the school but cannot replace statutory staffing, disciplinary or fee authority.

Section 53 repeals Acts 506 and 778 while saving lawful instruments and acts already in force until reviewed, cancelled or terminated.

Act 1049 establishes the TVET Service for delivery; CTVET, established under Act 1023, is the regulator. Keep service delivery, regulation and the actual officeholder's delegation separate.

Act 1023: five regulators, five different jobs

The Education Regulatory Bodies Act, 2020 establishes GTEC, CTVET, NTC, NaSIA and NaCCA.

Practice application: A weak SHS lesson, an unregistered teacher and an unsuitable textbook involve different functions. Support instruction through school/GES supervision, refer teacher-registration issues to NTC, and check approved learning materials within NaCCA's scope. Do not give all three jobs to NaSIA simply because it inspects schools.

Pillar 2: public finance and procurement

Read the MoF-hosted Act 921 text alongside amendments and applicable regulations. The 2025 PFM amendment, Act 1136, adds fiscal-responsibility/Fiscal Council provisions and other changes; Act 921 is not an entirely unamended 2016 rulebook. The operational distinctions here concern the specified sections, not a claim to reproduce a fully consolidated Act.

• Section 7, Principal Spending Officer: Regularity of expenditure, commitments within authorized ceilings, resources and internal controls. Delegation does not remove the PSO's ultimate responsibility. Holding AD I or Deputy rank alone does not make an officer a PSO.
• Section 32, virement: The Minister can authorize specified reallocations on a PSO request; wage/salary movements are restricted to wages/salaries within the same vote. Spending-plan changes require prior written approval. Capital-to-recurrent virement is prohibited; transfers between covered entities require Parliamentary supplementary-estimate approval. A cash balance is not authorization.
• Section 47, revenue: Authority to collect and retain IGF, Parliamentary appropriation and budget/commitment controls are separate questions. A school's retained cash is not automatically available for any expense.
• Section 52, assets: Custody, asset registers and proper disposal/accountability. The Board of Survey procedure is in procurement Act 663 section 83, not established by PFM section 52.
• Sections 86–88, Audit Committee: Section 86 establishes it, 87 concerns composition and 88 assigns functions, including follow-up on audit/Parliamentary recommendations and implementation reporting. It is not the spending-approval body or a replacement for internal audit.
• Sections 96–97: Offences and surcharge are different. Under 97 the Minister, after due inquiry, may surcharge attributable loss/deficit/property damage caused or contributed to by negligence or misconduct; recovery and contributory responsibility have statutory conditions. A headteacher cannot automatically impose that surcharge by virtue of rank.
• L.I.2378 regulation 133, reconciliation: For a bank account outside the TSA, the PSO prepares and submits monthly reconciliation to the Controller and Accountant-General within 15 days after month-end; TSA accounts follow the CAGD timetable. Match the cash book to the bank statement, investigate differences and document outstanding items. Reconciliation is not permission to spend.

Procurement, commitment control and disposal

Use the PPA's Act 663/914 text and resources with later amendments, including Act 1139 (2025), and Public Procurement Regulations 2022, L.I.2466.

• Methods: Competitive tendering is the general goods/works/services rule under section 35, subject to authorized alternatives; consultancy selection has its own Part Six rules. RFQ under 42–43 is for qualifying readily available goods, works or technical services within applicable thresholds, requesting as widely as practicable and comparing quotations from at least 3 independent sources under the conflict-of-interest rules. Do not apply shopping automatically to every consultancy or memorize an obsolete cedi limit.
• Single-source: Section 40 requires a statutory justification and PPA Board approval. Urgency caused by delay in planning does not manufacture the unforeseen-urgency ground. A method approval does not waive budget or commitment requirements.
• Splitting: Artificially dividing a planned procurement to evade the applicable method/approval threshold is prohibited. Properly planned lots are not automatically unlawful.
• Act 1139: New 24A(1) prohibits commencing procurement coming under the PPA or central tender review committee without the Minister's commitment authorization, regardless of method; 24A(2) bars the Board, a tender review committee or an entity tender committee from approval without that authorization in the application. Sections 92A/B address unauthorized commitments and unverified payments. MoF implementation guidance also explains funding sources, routing and commitment controls: apply relevant budget directives as well as the statutory triggers, rather than assuming “low value” or “IGF” removes all controls.
• Stores/disposal: Record receipts and authorized issues, including the Store Issue Voucher. Under 83, the entity head convenes a Board of Survey, obtains its technical report/recommendation and approves the disposal; 84 lists permitted disposal methods. Accidental loss or abnormal deterioration requires the loss procedure before boarding/disposal. A board recommendation alone is not permission for a private sale.

School finance scenario: Before paying for repairs, establish the approved purpose and budget, the officer's delegation, lawful method, required commitment/method approvals, delivery verification, voucher authorization and applicable tax withholding. Retain supporting records and reconcile the bank. For Capitation Grant activities, use the approved SPIP and current grant instructions; do not assume a universal 50/30/20 allocation. Act 1049 section 46 also requires school estimates to go to the appropriate governing body under budget guidelines.

Pillar 3: supervision, records and office practice

A SISO supports improvement across a circuit; a headteacher leads internal supervision. Keep clinical supervision, which studies evidence of a lesson, distinct from collegial peer coaching. Goldhammer's five-stage model is pre-observation conference; observation; analysis and strategy; supervision conference; postconference analysis. It is a teaching model, not a claim that every GES interaction must follow five legally prescribed stages.

Apply the cycle: Agree a focus such as questioning, record who participates rather than guessing teacher motives, analyze the evidence, discuss one achievable improvement and review the next lesson. Separate developmental support from a formal misconduct investigation. A weak observation does not itself authorize a salary penalty.

Know what each record proves: the log book gives a chronological official-event record; the admission register establishes enrolment history; the attendance register records daily presence; the cumulative record tracks learner progress; the inventory register tracks assets. Correct errors transparently with an audit trail rather than erasing entries. For a memo, distinguish addressee, subject, reference, decision/action and authorized signatory; protect staff and learner personal information when circulating it.

Pillar 4: curriculum, assessment and worked statistics

NaCCA's CCP resources support JHS curriculum revision. The six core competencies are Critical Thinking and Problem Solving; Creativity and Innovation; Communication and Collaboration; Cultural Identity and Global Citizenship; Personal Development and Leadership; Digital Literacy. A “4 Cs” shorthand is incomplete. Use a starter, main learning activity and plenary as a planning scaffold, not an assertion that one lesson template is mandated for every class. Differentiate content, process, product or environment; provide support within the learner's developing capability rather than merely giving easier work.

Bloom's revised cognitive sequence is Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, Create. Match the task to its demand: recalling a definition differs from evaluating two school interventions against evidence. Assessment FOR learning informs teaching, AS learning develops learner monitoring, and OF learning summarizes achievement. WAEC's BECE School page states 30% continuous assessment and 70% external examination. These BECE proportions are not GES promotion-exam topic weights. The 2026 MoE budget lists NST at P2, P4, P6; that budget line is not proof that each sitting has already occurred.

Item analysis: calculate and interpret

1. Difficulty index: p=correct/scored responses. With 36 correct of 60,p=36/60=0.60:60% answered correctly, so a larger p means an easier item for this sample.
2. Discrimination: With equal upper/lower groups of 20 and 18 versus 10 correct,D=(18-10)/20=+0.40. More generally use the difference in group proportions. Negative D prompts examination of the key, ambiguity, instruction and sample; it is not an automatic order to delete the question.
3. Do not change denominators: Difficulty uses the full scored sample; this discrimination calculation uses the size of one comparison group, not 60 or 40.

GER and NER: use an education level and its whole age cohort

UIS definitions use the population of official age for the whole education level. A single Basic 3 grade and one age do not establish the standard primary-level ratios.

For a hypothetical system with primary ages 6–11, suppose the entire 6–11 population is 10,000. Primary enrolment across all primary grades and all ages is 8,000, of whom 6,000 are 6–11:

• NER: 6,000/10,000×100=60% — primary-age children enrolled in primary divided by the whole primary-age population.
• GER: 8,000/10,000×100=80% — all primary pupils divided by that same population; the remaining 2,000 enrolled pupils are under/over-age.
• GER can exceed 100%; ordinary NER conceptually cannot. Adjusted NER, which can include primary-age children already in secondary education, is a different indicator. For a GER-based GPI, divide female GER by male GER; 1 indicates parity in that indicator, not necessarily equality of raw pupil counts.

Pillar 5: conduct, employment conditions and CPD version control

Use the officially hosted GES Code, revised June 2017 as the dated source for these clauses, alongside current lawful employment directives and applicable agreements; this is not a claim that every later circular has been consolidated here.

• Section 3.8: Prohibits corporal punishment and physical pain such as flogging. Protect a learner, document/report safeguarding concerns through the proper channels, and refer suspected crimes to police. GES employment discipline, NTC professional licensing and criminal proceedings have different authorities.
• Section 3.15(vi): Continuous absence for 10 working days or more without permission or reasonable excuse engages vacation-of-post provisions. Verify attendance, permission and the explanation before following the competent authority's process; a single absence does not establish this ten-day condition.
• Section 6.4(8): Interdiction protects an investigation: the Code describes an employee under investigation whose continued presence is likely to interfere, and justification where the alleged offence could be grave. It is not a finding of guilt. The Code says 50% of salary, excluding allowances, not a separately defined “basic salary” formula. If proceedings do not end in dismissal or termination, the withheld salary is restored with interest at the prevailing rate. Restoration is not limited to complete exoneration. The Code limits interdiction to 3 months, with Public Services Commission approval required for extension. This differs from the Code's punitive suspension after a finding.
• Part 7: Disciplinary authority follows the actual office and prescribed procedure; promotion rank is not an automatic power to dismiss another employee.

Under Labour Act 651 section 57, a qualifying worker with the medical certificate receives at least 12 weeks' maternity leave and full remuneration/benefits. Under subsection (3), maternity leave may be extended for at least 2 additional weeks where confinement is abnormal or two or more babies are born in the same confinement; medically certified pregnancy/confinement illness has further provisions. A nursing mother has one paid hour daily; the statutory definition concerns a child suckling for a period of not more than 1 year, not an unconditional year after returning to work. Study leave with pay requires the applicable GES approval, rather than promotion rank alone.

CPD: label the version before memorizing the number

The NTC's June 2021 framework gives suggested three-year total points: Principal Superintendent 80, AD II 85, AD I 90, Deputy 95. These are not all “rank-based activity” points: its detailed allocation is 22+30+38=90 for AD I and 26+30+39=95 for Deputy, across rank-based, mandatory and recommended categories. The current NTC training page discusses CPD reforms. This 2021 table alone does not establish the operative 2026 renewal target; check your current NTC/TMP notice before acting on a points requirement. Do not turn a historical table or a reported annual figure into an undated current licensing rule.

Final revision for 4 November 2026

This article was first published 29 October. There were not four weeks remaining before the stated sitting. The following is an editorial four-day plan for 31 October–3 November; readers starting 29–30 October can use the extra days for a diagnostic and document/centre checks.

The practice simulation does not claim an official question blueprint or pass guarantee. For a future cycle or an earlier start, the original four-week structure remains useful: week 1 education Acts; week 2 finance/procurement; week 3 supervision/curriculum/statistics; week 4 conduct, mixed recall and timed practice. Recheck the future cycle's actual notice before reusing 2026 dates, eligibility cut-offs or timers.

Sources and document versions

The linked sections identify the source for each rule: GEDP-hosted 2026 advertisement; third-party mirrors of the 19 October 2026 candidate notice; original Act 1049 text; CTVET-hosted Act 1023; MoF Act 921 and Parliament Act 1136/1139; PPA procurement resources and L.I.2466; GES June 2017 Code; Labour Ministry Act 651; NTC June 2021 framework/current reform-training page; NaCCA, WAEC, UIS and the 2026 MoE budget. The L.I.2378 copy hosted by the Office of the Special Prosecutor has a misleading filename: identify the instrument from its title, not the URL. Source dates matter; a historical rule, a proposed amendment and a current instruction are different forms of evidence.