On Friday April 14, Eduwatch facilitated a capacity-building training for Youth Policy Ambassadors of the Foundation for Security and Development in Africa (FOSDA). The workshop focused on the implications of Ghana's anticipated International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme on public basic education, and advocacy strategies the Youth Policy Influencers can adopt to influence the protection of education expenditure in this period of economic austerity.

In a presentation, Eduwatch Snr Programme Officer Divine Kpe, explained how Ghana's bid to meet conditionalities for its Extended Credit Facility application resulted in huge expenditure cuts to education, especially the basic education sub-sector in the 2023 budget and the 2023-2025 medium-term expenditure framework. He noted that the Goods and Services budget line for basic education declined from GHC 292 million in 2022 to GHC 167 million in 2023, while only GHC 11 million out of a required GHC 80 million Capitation Grant was budgeted for in the 2023 budget. Similarly, the budgetary projection for the Ghana School Feeding Programme has declined from GHC 970 million in 2023 to GHC 775 million in 2025.

He encouraged the Youth Policy Influencers to use strategies such as engaging Parliament, social media activism, article/policy brief publications, and alliance building with other youth groups among others, to demand that government uses the mid-year budget to review the 2023 resource allocation to education, and review the medium term expenditure framework of the education sector to exceed the international financing benchmarks.

© Africa Education Watch

On April 15, Eduwatch published a policy brief on Ghana's anticipated IMF Programme and its implications on public basic education. The brief takes a careful look at Ghana's 17th IMF programme and expenditure cuts in the 2023 budget arising from Ghana’s bid to meet conditionalities for its Extended Credit Facility application. The policy brief also discusses immediate and potential effects of the IMF deal on the delivery of quality basic education in Ghana in the long term.

The brief was developed by Eduwatch with support from Oxfam, and can be accessed via the link below:
https://africaeducationwatch.org/publication/ghana-imf-programme-and-its-implications-on-basic-public-education

© Africa Education Watch

On Wednesday April 19, Eduwatch honoured an invitation from the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC) to make a presentation on the desk deficit in Ghana's public basic schools. The presentation was made at GNECC's Global Action Week Celebration for Education.

In his presentation, Snr Programme Officer for Eduwatch - Divine Kpe, indicated that there are 2.3 million Ghanaian basic school pupils who are without desks - a situation affecting access and learning in the public basic education sub-sector. He attributed the desk challenge to the inequitable Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) allocation between basic schools and Senior High Schools (SHS).

He further observed that, while CAPEX for basic schools increased from 10 per cent to 11 per cent (1 percentage point increase) from 2014 to 2020, that of SHS increased from 12.5 per cent to 38.2 per cent (26 percentage points increase). Also, while in 2021 and 2022, the proportion of GETFund CAPEX allocation to SHS was 66 per cent and 43 percent respectively, that of basic education was same (16%) for both years.

He urged CSOs and the media to create public awareness on the implications of the desk situation in public basic schools on the attainment of the SDG 4 targets, and support the campaign to uncap GETFund.

Participants were drawn from the Complementary Education Agency, GNAT, NAGRAT, Actionaid, Oxfam in Ghana, UNESCO, CAMFED, Associate for Change, and the media.

© Africa Education Watch

On Thursday, April 27, Eduwatch and representatives of over 600 Civil Society Organizations working to promote access to quality basic education and social protection in Ghana, submitted a petition to the Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The petition called on the IMF Board to remove brutal expenditure cuts in Ghana’s basic education sector, arising from Ghana’s bid to meet conditionalities for its Extended Credit Facility application.

The representatives of over 600 CSOs across Ghana also called on the IMF Board to ensure the Government of Ghana among others reviews the 2023 budget to reflect a minimum of 15 per cent national budgetary allocation and 4 per cent of GDP to education, and restore the 40 per cent cuts in the basic education budget for goods and services as part of conditions subsequent to final approval of the Extended Credit Facility application.

The petition is available on Eduwatch's website via the link below:
https://africaeducationwatch.org/publication/csos-in-ghana-petition-imf-board

© Africa Education Watch