On Tuesday, January 17, Eduwatch participated in a technical consultative meeting on Gender Equality. The event was organized by the African Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET) to discuss ways to progress gender equality in Ghana and ensure inclusive roles for women in society, politics and economy.

The President and Founder of ACET, Dr. K.Y. Amoako in his opening remarks, expressed concern over the delay in the passage of the Affirmative Action Bill into law to promote gender equality across all levels of decision-making in the country. He entreated participating organisations to strengthen advocacy for the passage of the Bill.

Contributing to the discussion, Eduwatch's Snr. Programme Officer, Divine Kpe underscored the potential of education in achieving gender equality, indicating that although Ghana has achieved gender parity at primary and JHS-levels, there are deep-rooted facilitators of gender inequalities and gender-based discriminations in the education system that need to be addressed. He added that, there is the need to adopt a Gender Transformative Education (GTE) framework into Ghana's education system towards empowering students, teachers, communities and education policymakers to examine, challenge and change harmful gender norms that put boys and men at an advantage over girls and women.

Participants in the event included Prof. Akosua Darkwah - Convener of NETRIGHT's Steering Committee, Dr. Otiko Afisah Djaba - Former. Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Dr. Rose Mensah-Kustin - Director of Abuntu, and Ms. Briditte Dzogbenuku - the 2020 Presidential Candidate of the Progressive People's Party.

Eduwatch, through the support of OXFAM in Ghana aims to influence Ghana's pre-teriary education system to adopt GTE models that support the GTE concept.

© Africa Education Watch

On Tuesday January 24, various media outlets reported that some eight (8) school children had drowned following a boat disaster in the Sene East District of the Bono East region. These children were understood to be commuting from their home in Atikagome to school in Wayokope via water transport.

Eduwatch in a statement on January 25, while sympathizing with bereaved families and the education community, called on the Ministry of Education to, as a matter of urgency, “provide life jackets to all pupils and staff in island and settler communities” to prevent such incidents from ocurring in the future. We also urged the Minister of Education to “work with local authorities in districts with island communities, to strengthen the enforcement of health and safety standards at all water transport routes across the country”.

Read Eduwatch's full statement via the link below:
https://africaeducationwatch.org/publication/provide-life-jackets-for-island-pupils

© Africa Education Watch

Ghana joined the rest of the world to mark five (5) years of the United Nations' declaration of January 24 as International Day of Education, to acknowledge the role of education as a tool for peace and development.

In a statement on Tuesday January 24 to commemorate the day, Eduwatch acknowledged Government of Ghana's efforts in promoting access to education for many children, but indicated that there still remain 1 million children out of school, while quality in the delivery of public education remained a challenge.

Eduwatch urged Government to “walk the talk” by “recommiting to adequate and equitable financing of education”, and improved resourcing of basic education.

FULL statement via the link below:
https://africaeducationwatch.org/publication/int-education-day-2023

© Africa Education Watch

On Thursday January 26, Eduwatch participated in a roundtable discussion on implementation of the Complementary Basic Education (CBE) in Ghana. The engagement was under the auspices of the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC) as part of STAR-Ghana's G-REP programme.

In a presentation on the state of CBE in Ghana, Executive Director for the Complementary Education Agency (CEA), Francis Asumadu indicated that, with Government's commitment through the allocation of GHC 2.1 million for CBE implementation in the 2023 budget, the CEA will roll out Cycle 8 of Ghana's CBE cohort, adding that the CEA has a 2023 target to provide CBE for 5,000 children, 52% of which will be females. Mr. Asumadu submitted that sustainable funding and budgetary allocation, coupled with a timely release of funds for CBE implementation is key to sustaining the programme.

Contributing to the discussions on the need for concerted efforts to meet financial and budgetary requirements for the CBE Cycle 8 implementation, Eduwatch's Programme Officer, Kwasi Nimo Jnr submitted that, the CEA must explore collaborations with the private sector and other state and non-state funding agencies to support its CBE activities in order to widen the scope of CBE beneficiaries and meet its target.

Stakeholders at the roundtable were drawn from the Ministry of Education, CEA, STAR-Ghana Foundation, OXFAM in Ghana, ActionAid, CAMFED, Right to Play, World Education, Associates for Change, GNAT and CARE International.

© Africa Education Watch