On Wednesday, March 8, Eduwatch participated in a Forum on Girl’s Education in Ghana organised by STAR-Ghana Foundation and partners under the Gender Rights and Empowerment Programme (G-REP) with funding from FCDO. The forum, under the theme “Increasing Inclusive Access to Continuous Quality Education for Girls”, sought to build stakeholder consensus and renew commitments towards collaborations on strategies to secure girls’ continuous access to quality education.

Stakeholders identified the inaccessibility of data as a bane to the promotion of girls’ education in Ghana, highlighting the need for the phenomenon to be tackled with some urgency. This was rehashed by Dr Ernestina Tetteh, Project Coordinator for G-REP, who intimated that data on girls’ education was scarce and for those that were available, accessibility was a major challenge.

Representing Eduwatch, our Executive Director Kofi Asare indicated that expanding equitable access to education required that the larger issue of infrastructural development in line with the growth of the population and the growing number of schools still operating under trees and dilapidated structures be critically considered. Speaking on the low budgetary allocation for specified interventions that benefit girl’s education in Ghana, he urged government to embark on deliberate and specific action towards financing equitable and inclusive education in Ghana, particularly to the benefit of girls enrolment in schools.

Credit: Ghana News Agency

On Monday March 13, Eduwatch published its Scoping Study Report on Ghana's Child Marriage Response System. The objective of the report is to support Eduwatch's advocacy on strengthening the effectiveness of Ghana's child marriage reporting and response systems.

The report identified the strengths and gaps within the existing child marriage response system that hamper its effectiveness, and made recommendations to improve the effectiveness of the response and strengthen system efficiency.

The publication was supported by FCDO in partnership with STAR-Ghana Foundation, and is available via the link below:
https://africaeducationwatch.org/publication/ghana-child-marriage-response-system

The report has been distributed to child protection stakeholders, particularly the Ministry of Gender Children and Social Protection and its agencies.

© Africa Education Watch

The National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) and Eduwatch have petitioned Parliament to call for an urgent removal of the capping of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund).

According to the group, there has been a decline in the funding of education as a result of the capping of the GETFund.

“Our concern primarily stems from the concerns of declining funding for education which emanates from GETFund. Act 947 especially for the GETFund part is an enemy of the progress of education in Ghana,” the group said.

Presenting the petition to the Education Committee of Parliament on March 16, the National President of NUGS, Dennis Appiah Larbi Ampofo explained that the waning of funds has negatively affected the allocation of the Student Loan Trust Fund and other educational agencies.

“Our biggest problem started in 2023 when we realised that it was not a boardroom discussion again. It’s a matter of deliberate attempts to deprive students in this country of the requisite funding needed to run an educational sector. The necessary funds (which are) supposed to be released to the agencies have ceased,” he said.

The student body appealed to the committee to reject the 2023 proposed formula for the disbursement of GETFund.

“We stand at the crossroad where the fate of our young students lies in your hands. First, we reject the formula without any equivocation. We can only have a comfortable discussion about the future of education when the fund meant for education is guaranteed by this House.

“We call on you to reject the 2023 proposed formula and move steps to immediately uncap GETFund. Uncapping GETFund is a communal labour,” they added.

The Executive Director of education think tank, Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare who was also present during the presentation of the petition, said the committee must take a decision by Monday, March 20, to save the education sector from collapse.

“Let’s respect the fact that education funds are meant for education, it’s as simple as that. We hope that by Monday the select committee will take a decision,” he said.

Additionally, the ranking member on the Constitutional and Legal Committee, Bernard Ahiafor backed the claim by the student body, stressing that the government failed to pay in full the monies allocated to GETFund.

“Several attempts made to ensure that the full amount of VAT paid by Ghanaians to be released to the GETFund for financing education in this country, is to no avail. In the 2023 budget for instance, if we look at page 190, it is stated clearly that the projected revenue for the 2.5% VAT meant for GETFund is GH₵4.65 billion.

“Now if you go to page 191 it is stated their expenditure items is only GH₵1.8 billion out of the GH₵4.65 billion that will be released to the fund and a cause for worry,” he bemoaned.

The MP for Akatsi South accused the government of attempting to collapse the fund.

He said even the small amount that is supposed to be released to GETFund by government is in arrears and that if the situation continues like this, then it is fair to conclude that “this current government intends to collapse the GETFund.”

However, he assured that the minority “will do everything possible to ensure that whatever is supposed to be released to GetFund is released, so that the fund does not collapse.”

Source: myjoyonline.com

From Monday March 20 to Wednesday March 22, Eduwatch participated in a 3-day consultative meeting organised by the Complementary Education Agency (CEA) in Koforidua for a participatory development of a Complementary Education Legislative Instrument (LI), Policy, and Resource Mobilisation Strategy.

The LI will give effect to Article 38 of the CEA Act, 2020 (Act 1055) which enjoins the Minister for Education to make regulations through an LI to among others, provide for; 1) the delivery of complementary education, 2) the criteria for the selection of learning centres in communities, 3) strategies and programmes for complementary education, 4) accessibility to out-of-school children, youth and adults learners, and 5) the qualification for the appointment of facilitators under the Act.

The Resource Mobilisation Strategy is aimed at providing direction to the CEA on how to mobilise resources from different sources for the effective implementation of its programmes and activities.

Eduwatch was represented by its Snr. Programme Officer, Divine Kpe, with other participants drawn from the CEA, GES, MMDAs, Civil Society and academia.

© Africa Education Watch

On Thursday March 23, Eduwatch, with support from Oxfam held a seminar on Ghana’s IMF Programme and its Implications on Public Basic Education at the Noguchi Conference Centre, UG. The session observed a declining share of education resources as a percentage of national budget under the Medium-Term budget and Expenditure Framework - (MTEF) (2023-2025) from 12.9% in 2023 to 11.1% in 2025, below minimum international benchmarks of 15%-20%.

CSOs expressed disappointment about how IMF-occasioned expenditure cuts affected basic education, especially the conduct of sub-standard terminal exams. The Capitation Grant budget was apparently cut by over 70%, with no disbursement since the academic year commenced in January.

Eduwatch and partners called on government to use the supplementary budget for 2023 to improve basic education financing, especially fully funding Capitation Grant arrears for 2021-2023, remove the quota/ban on teacher recruitment, uncap GETFund to free GHC 4.6 billion for education infrastructure financing, especially at the basic level, and a participatory review of the MTEF by the Ministry of Finance and CSOs.

Teacher Unions, Student Unions, CSOs, Coalitions and the media were in attendance.

© Africa Education Watch

Executive Director of the Africa Education Watch Kofi Asare has chided District Directors of the Ghana Education Service (GES) for being silent and cowardly as the government fails to release funds to them to run basic public schools in the country.

Mr. Asare lamented that even as these District Directors are faced with financial challenges, they have remained timid concerning demanding funds for the administration of their schools but have rather looked on as parents are billed to pay for aspects of their children’s education which should be paid for by the government.

He cited the example of an examination fee that is being paid by parents when government is supposed to do so.

He noted that, unlike heads of senior high schools who consistently demand funds to run their schools, district directors have been laid-back and silent over the lack of funds to run basic schools.

Read his full statement below:

As usual, I have a list of District Education Directorates that collected up to GHC15 from pupils to conduct end-of-term exams in public basic schools. I know this is no news-actually a norm! Everyone from the Ministry of Education GH to Ghana Education Service is aware but silent because they have no alternative.

The District Directors, as usual, claim government has not sent any money for exam. I am aware only 12% of the Capitation & Base Grant required for this year was even budgeted by Ken, so I appreciate how basic education will suffer this year too.

While I am not against parental contribution to basic education, I will continue to reiterate that it is the responsibility of the GES under the MOE to fund examinations through the Capitation Grant.

Denying basic school funds and watching teachers tax parents to fund terminal examinations is against the free, compulsory, universal basic education policy and constitutional provision per Article 38(2).

Instead of always pouncing on poor parents to demand cash to fund basic education in the midst of low commitment by government, District Directors should rather muster courage and tell government that they cannot run basic schools with PR.

District Directors of Education must be bold and learn from CHASS to get results. Under the free SHS, immediately CHASS ‘shouts’, a ‘state of emergency’ is declared at the MoE for fear of closure of SHS. Quickly, money is found from nowhere and thrown at them.

This cowardice of District Directors who are responsible for managing basic education will continue to make government even more docile towards financing basic education.

There is too much timidity of leadership at the basic school level to attract any positive response from government.

Nothing will come out of nothing!

Source: ghanaweb.com

The Executive Director of Education Watch (Eduwatch), Kofi Asare, who made the call, said the review should be captured in the supplementary budget to be presented to be read this year.

Failure to do so, he said, would have dire consequences in terms of funding for basic education.

Delivering a presentation at a roundtable on Ghana's IMF programme and its implications on public basic education yesterday in Accra, Mr Asare said the programme was already having a bite on basic school education which needed to be looked at before it became too late for the country to redeem itself from the consequences.

He said the 2023 budget was the country’s inception budget into the IMF programme and therefore was dictated by the conditionalities of expenditure cuts in the education sector.

"For the first time in two decades, only 12.9 per cent of budgeted expenditure was allocated to education, far below UNESCO’s 15 per cent minimum benchmark. Also only three per cent of GDP was allocated which is below UNESCO’s four per cent minimum benchmark,” he stated.

The Education Watch boss said, in December 21, 2022, the Ministry of Finance secured a parliamentary amendment to Act 974, to further '”tighten the cap” on GETFund and the other earmarked funds from 25 per cent to 17.5 per cent of receivables.

He noted that the strict application of the amended Act 974 could see up to 80 per cent of GETFund levy accruals diverted for budgetary support in other sectors.

The implication, he said, was that the GETFund could not create the fiscal space to adequately fund infrastructure interventions for enrolling and retaining children in formal basic schools, as 2,000 schools were needed to absorb one million schoolchildren, and deal with over 5,000 basic schools under trees and sheds, among other challenges.

On the effect of the IMF programme on quality basic education, Mr Asare said the goods and services budget line to basic education from which the Capitation Grant, Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) subsidy, feeding grants to special schools were financed, had seen a decline from GH¢ 292 million in 2022 to GH¢167 million in the 2023 budget.

“Out of about GH¢80 million required for the Capitation Grant in 2023, only GH¢ 11 million was budgeted.

Denying public basic schools the required resources can lead to the imposition of hidden fees, a situation already prevailing in many public basic schools,” he said.

Touching on the effect of the IMF programme on teacher deployment, the executive director indicated that with a freeze on public sector employment in the 2023 budget, only a maximum of 8,000 teaching and non-teaching staff may be recruited in the pre-tertiary sector in 2023 against an average of 15,000 yearly.

That, he said, could leave an annual teacher deficit of about 7,000.

Mr Asare noted that as the economy grew within the IMF period of 2023-2025, fewer resources would be committed proportionally to education.

School feeding programme

For the school feeding programme, Mr Asare said the 2022 budget’s target to increase the number of beneficiaries to four million did not materialise due to expenditure cuts.

He said austerity periods including the IMF's medium-term programme was occasioned by an increase in taxation, affecting the poor negatively, hence the need to cushion them with programmes such as the school feeding, stating that 969 million was allocated for 2023 and 2024, which suggests no new beneficiaries would be added to the programme.

"The 2025 situation looks more dire with a 23.5 decline in the expenditure allocation to GH¢ 774,200,000,” he stated.

Unanimity

Other panel members who contributed to the discussions included the Coordinator, Economic Governance Platform, Abdulkarim Mohammed; the Greater Accra Regional Secretary of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Richard Kwashie Koves, and the Senior Economic Analyst of the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), Dr Alex Ampaabeng.

They were unanimous that throughout the years, various IMF programmes had not helped the country to deal with its economic issues.

They called for a merger of some ministries to reduce national expenditure.

Source: graphic.com.gh