The right to basic education is under serious threat due to funding neglect by the government.

Over 1 million children are out of school. We need 2,000 new basic schools to solve this. But…No cash for basic!

About 30% of pupils who enrol in primary do not complete JHS mainly due to the lack of JHS in 25% of primary schools.

In the five Northern regions, about 60% of primary schools lack JHS. There is no serious effort to bridge this gap since 2017…No cash for basic!

Many urban basic schools are choked, some class sizes are 80-100. No admission! Those who can’t afford private education stay out of school..No cash for basic!

Some 5,400 basic schools are still under trees & sheds, with less than 0.5% constructed since 2021. Gov’t needed GHC 700m annually to finance this, equivalent to half of SHS feeding cost a year, but..No cash for basic!

The % of pupils without desks has increased from 30-40% since 2017, and even higher (80%) in North East. In urban Ghana, parents pay for desks because there are no desks…No cash for basic!

Many basic school children in deprived districts lack exercise books, uniforms & workbooks; parents cant afford. Meanwhile, all these are available for free in SHS….as usual, ..No cash for basic!

Textbooks are now a luxury in basic schools. Very few are lucky to access.

Capitation Grant, and feeding grant for special schools in arrears of almost 2 years…No cash for basic!

Since 2014, basic education’s share of the pre-tertiary discretionary budget i.e. non-salary budget has declined from 30% to 10%. This year, of GHC 4.5 billion allocated for pre-tertiary, secondary alone took 90% with only 10% for basic….and our Parliament unanimously approved this atrocity.

Out of the budgetary allocation, only GHC 90 million was allocated for constructing new basic schools, an amount that can build only 60 basic schools across 216 districts.

Our public basic schools have become shelters of misery than hope.

The delivery of Ghana’s basic education has become an act of charity than policy.

The government must end the rhetoric and fund basic education NOW!

#StopTheNoCashForBasic
#LeaveNoOneBehind
#BasicFirst

Kofi Asare
Eduwatch
Kasare@eduwatch.info