On Thursday 2nd June 2022, the Executive Director of Eduwatch Mr. Kofi Asare, participated in the Colleges of Education (CoE) Teachers Multidisciplinary Conference. He delivered an address on the topic "Sustaining the Boarding System of Education In Ghana’s CoE".

In his address, he observed that COEs require hostels to become fully tertiary. However, within a sector with severe liquidity constraints, and over 1,000 abandoned GETFund projects between 2017 and 2021 alone, it was important for CoEs to advocate spending efficiency for the meager resources available.

While acknowledging the recently announced GETFund supported GHC 485 million intervention to provide 300 bed hostels for each of the 45 CoEs, Mr. Asare urged the CoE Principals to lead in negotiating the scrapping of the feeding allowance and use the GHC 170 million spent annually on that intervention to support the construction of hostel facilities, since GETFund was not a reliable source.

The Executive Director advised CoE Principals and Student leadership to engage the Ministry of Education on a responsive students loan system that can replace the feeding grant without unduly affecting equitable access to CoE by students. He finally encouraged CoEs to diversify the mode of instruction by introducing Distance Learning Programmes which are less expensive than the boarding system.

The Conference was held from 2nd to 4th June 2022 at E-hotel in Nsuta, on the theme "Education in Emergency Situations, the Challenges and the Prospects".

© Africa Education Watch

There are about 1.3 million learners in Ghana’s Second Cycle Schools. Even though GHC 74 million of GETFund was allocated to Second Cycle Education in 2021, the Government of Ghana (GoG) ended up disbursing even more, i.e. GHC 100 million, representing a disbursement rate of 135%.

At the same time, Basic Education with over 7 million learners was allocated only GHC 66 million, yet GoG disbursed only GHC 25 million, representing 37% of the allocation.

In summary, Basic Education received a quarter of what went to secondary education in 2021.

Perhaps, this helps in understanding why that basic school in your community remains abandoned; 4,000 primary schools still do not have a JHS; over 5,400 schools still exist under trees, sheds and dilapidated structures; and 40% of basic school pupils lack desks in class.

Citizens, CSOs and the Media must accelerate their advocacy for equitable sub-sectoral financing of education in Ghana.

Data Source: Parliament of Ghana
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On Thursday 9th June 2022, Eduwatch in partnership with, CDD-Ghana launched the Education Sector Medium Term (2018-2021) Review Report. In attendance were key Education Sector Stakeholders as well as the Media.

Presenting findings from the report, Executive Director for Eduwatch, Mr. Kofi Asare highlighted the rationale for the review and outlined the levels of attainment of eighteen (18) key indicators in the ESP and the various levels of attainment at the national, regional, and districts (deprived and endowed) levels. The report revealed that among the targets met or exceeded were the percentage of Trained Teachers, Gender Parity, JHS Completion at the national level, provision of Urinal and Toilet facilities, as well as the Pupil-Teacher Ratio.

Mr. Asare further outlined the various deficits in attaining other indicators such as KG Net Enrolment Rate, Proficiency in Maths and English, SMC Participation, Capitation Grant Disbursement, BECE Pass Rate, and adequate availability of Seating, Writing and ICT Facilities, Textbooks availability, and Curriculum Implementation. He further highlighted existing gaps in the availability of resources between deprived and endowed areas, as well as various challenges confronting Basic School Education as a result of the insufficient and delayed release of funds by the Finance Ministry.

As part of recommendations for the development of the next Medium-Term Strategy for 2022-2025, the report indicates the need to adopt an affirmative approach to bridging the imbalances between endowed schools and deprived schools and the need to commit to least 50% of the education budget to Basic Education.

Please access the report via:
https://africaeducationwatch.org/publication/review-of-the-esmtdp-2018-2021

© Africa Education Watch