On Tuesday November 23, Eduwatch joined in a meeting to validate the Ghana Youth Manifesto at the University of Ghana. The meeting was under the auspices of the Foundation for Security and Development in Africa (FOSDA), with support from OXFAM in Ghana.

The Ghana Youth Manifesto was developed through an inclusive consultative process involving thousands of young people across the country. The manifesto will be launched soon, and will be used in engaging political parties.

The issues that feature in the manifesto range from inclusive social and economic governance to access to social services, with unemployment being the dominant issue.

Eduwatch was represented by our Executive Director, Kofi Asare, who observed that, the youth are not happy with the quid pro quo style of democracy which serves the interest of only the political class and their patrons. He indicated that, Eduwatch will lead in championing the education and social protection issues in the Youth Manifesto, through our engagements with Political Party Manifesto Committees for policy adoption.

© Africa Education Watch

Eduwatch participated in this year’s National Education Week (NEW), held from Monday 20 to Friday November 24, at the Labadi Beach Hotel, in Accra. The event, which is in its sixth year, is a platform provided by the Ministry of Education (MoE) for Education Sector Institutions (ESIs) to review their performance and plan ahead.

The 2023 edition of NEW focused on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), providing insights into progress made by MoE and ESIs in transforming the governance and delivery of TVET and STEM through enhancing access and improving quality. Exhibition booths were mounted for students and institutions, to showcase results of the huge investments made in upgrading infrastructure which include the infusion of state-of-the-art technologies into TVET and STEM facilitation and learning.

Eduwatch was represented by our Executive Director, Kofi Asare, who expressed his excitement at the progress being made, while commending TVET and STEM teachers for doing a good job. He applauded the Commission for TVET (CTVET) and the TVET Service, adding that CTVET particularly has achieved a lot, including operationalizing Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL).

Mr. Asare also noted that there had been some good progress, strategy gaps and opportunities for policy reinforcements, and indicated that a comprehensive but critical review of all progress reports will be published by Eduwatch later in the year.

Participants at this year's NEW included development partners, academia, industry players, directors of education, students, policymakers, researchers among others.

© Africa Education Watch

On Thursday November 23, Eduwatch, represented by our Executive Director Kofi Asare, presented copies of 10 of our research reports and policy briefs to the Balme and Congress Libraries of the University of Ghana.

The publications included the following:
1. Scoping study report on the impact of desk deficits in public basic schools on girls' participation in basic education in Ghana.
2. Report on textbooks tracking in public primary schools.
3. Civil societies' engagement in local governance: An imperative for improving Equitable access to quality Basic education in Ghana.
4. Challenges to access to free compulsory universal basic education in urban ghana: The case of Adentan municipality.
5. Analysis of the 2023 Education Budget.
6. Ghana's IMF programme and it's implications on public basic education.
7. Girls' participation in basic education in Ghana: What are the gaps?
8. Towards gender responsiveness in basic education in West Africa.
9. Scoping study report on Ghana's child marriage response system.
10. Tax reforms, education financing and equitable access to public education: Roles of citizens, local and central government.

Our partners, OXFAM in Ghana, STAR-Ghana Foundation and ActionAid Ghana are duly acknowledged for supporting these researches.

The Balme Library had received Eduwatch’s COVID-19 Monitoring Report weeks earlier. Soft copies of these publications are available via https://africaeducationwatch.org/our-policy-publications

© Africa Education Watch

On Friday November 24, Eduwatch’s Executive Director, Kofi Asare, honored an invitation to the Ghana Tertiary Tech Summit at the University of Media, Arts and Communications - Institute of Journalism (UniMAC-IJ).

Addressing participants at the Summit, Mr. Asare reiterated that, youth unemployment stands at 30 per cent in Ghana, thus a Bachelor's degree alone is not enough to compete for the few available jobs. He further advised them to acquire requisite work-ready skills, especially in ICT and its application in their respective careers, in order to enhance their employment competitiveness.

The Ghana Tertiary Tech Summit was organised under the auspices of the Management of UniMAC-IJ.

© Africa Education Watch

On Thursday November 30, Eduwatch joined other Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) for the Ghana Parliamentary Monitoring Organizations Network (GPMON) final General Meeting for 2023. The aim of the meeting was to review the Network's activities in 2023 and be informed on activities of Network members involving Parliament.

The meeting underscored the critical need for CSOs to connect with Parliamentary committees by sharing their expertise with them and soliciting their support on various advocacies, for greater impact. The need for members to engage Parliament collectively was also encouraged, for a more direct and effective approach through which CSOs present their positions to Parliament for legislative and advocacy support.

On behalf of Eduwatch, Programme Officer and Focal Person on the Parliamentary Network Africa (PNAfrica) platform, Kwasi Nimo Jnr, informed the Network of our continuous engagements with the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education, mainly hinged on our advocacy for improved financing of public basic education in partnership with other CSOs. He added that Eduwatch's calls for a review of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) Act and the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) Act have all been in partnership with the Parliament.

Kwasi informed the Network that our collective advocacy with Parliament on the uncapping of GETFund to free more funds for adequate provision of basic school infrastructure, led to a Private Members' Bill which was moved by the Chair and Ranking member of the Education Select Committee in Parliament. Our annual pre- and post-budget engagements also led to first time allocation of 2.1 million for the implementation of Complementary Basic Education in the 2023 budget.

The meeting was held at the premises of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), with participants drawn from the PNAfrica Secretariat, Ghana Integrity Initiative, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Coalition of Health NGOs, NORSAAC, BudgIt Ghana, Penplus Byte, 360 Ghana and the Youth Network Alliance.

© Africa Education Watch

Education infrastructure in Ghana is currently in a deplorable state, especially at the basic level, and the situation is set to worsen on the back of the 2024 budget allocation for the sector. The government, in its 2024 Fiscal Policy and Budget Statement, has allocated only 14.5 percent to the education sector, which is shy of the 15.5 percent Sub-Saharan African (SSA) average and about six (6) percent short of the international benchmark minimum of 20 percent.

An intriguing twist to this situation, though, is that the President, Nana Akufo-Addo, at the Global Education Summit held in July 2021 in the United Kingdom (UK), pledged to world leaders to spend at least 23 percent of the national budget on the development of education in the country over the medium term – 2021 to 2025.

Out of the projected government expenditure of GH₵ 226 billion, only GH₵ 32.7 billion, representing 14.5 percent, was allocated to the education sector. This is not only lower than the 23 percent pledge of President Nana Addo, but also lower than the 2023 SSA average of 15.5 percent and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) member-states’ commitment to allocate a minimum of 20 percent to education.

Over the past seven years, the economy of Ghana has increased by four-fold and is projected to increase further in 2024. However, as the economy expands, education’s share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) continues to decline.

With a projected GDP of GH₵ 1.05 trillion in 2024, the allocation of GH₵ 32.7 billion to education represents only a 3.3 percent share of GDP, which is lower than UNESCO’s target of six (6) percent and SSA’s average of five (5) percent.

Considering that the government, in the 2023 Budget Statement in a similar fashion, committed only 12 percent to the education sector, one would have expected amends with at least a minimum requirement this time around; but unfortunately, the trend continues amid heightened inflation and currency depreciation challenges.

A policy think tank, Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch), describes the trend as alarming as it would negatively affect Ghana’s attainment of the Sustainable Development Goal Four (SDG 4) to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong opportunities for all” target by 2030. The Executive Director of Eduwatch, Kofi Asare, sharing his opinion said: “Ghana must reset its public education financing protocols to improve the supply of the globally competitive human capital needed to drive economic development”.

Sector Budget Expenditure Breakdown

Out of the total allocation to education, about GH₵ 22.50 billion, representing 68.8 percent, is earmarked for salaries and related expenses/compensation of employees, compared to 65 percent in the main 2023 budget.

In the area of education infrastructure investment, only GH₵ 985 million, representing three (3) percent of the total education allocation is earmarked for Capital Expenditure (CAPEX). Goods and services, where the non-salary recurrent cost of running education is financed, received an allocation of GH₵ 6.07 billion, representing 18.7 percent.

GH₵ 2.7 billion, representing about eight (8) per cent of the total education budget, is allocated to the Free Senior High School (FSHS) and Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programmes.

GH₵ 3.2 billion is allocated to the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund), representing an increase of 78 percent compared to the 2023 main budgetary allocation of GH₵ 1.8 billion. However, because of the capping of the GETFund Levy by government, the 2024 allocation represents only 40 percent of the projected GETFund Levy accruals of GH₵ 7.9 billion for 2024.

An amount of GH₵ 1.39 billion is allocated to the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP). GH₵ 6.2 million is allocated to the Students Loan Trust Fund (SLTF), and GH ₵222 million earmarked for the payment of teacher trainees’ allowances compared to GH₵ 240 million in 2023.

The Capitation Grant (CG) received an amount of GH₵ 84 million. This is the first time the CG is receiving a full allocation since it was increased to GH₵ 10 per pupil/year in 2018.

Infrastructure Deficit At Basic Level

There are 1.2 million children out of basic school in Ghana mainly because of huge deficits in the availability of public basic schools in underserved communities. This, coupled with the over 5,000 basic schools taking place under trees, sheds and dilapidated structures, and the lack of Junior High Schools in about 4,000 primary schools, must be enough reason for the government to listen to calls by Parliament and civil society for uncapping the GETFund.

Source: thebftonline.com

Earlier this year, when Senior High Schools (SHS) re-opened, the array of bloated prospectuses was an issue. Eduwatch were worried that some poor people could not afford, and we were right, per the enrolment data.

We urged the Ghana Education Service to adopt a common and reasonable prospectus to prevent schools from piling all their needs into prospectuses on parents.

We are happy to note that the Ministry of Education (MoE) has developed a common prospectus for all schools-developed together with CHASS.

Our marketing research conducted in Madina market last week indicates it costs less than GHC 2,500 to buy all prospectus items, far better than the outrageous ones we saw in February 2023.

Our worry however, is, some items have been taken off without the full assurance that they will be supplied on time to the schools by MoE - exercise books, notebooks, detergents, A4 sheets, markers etc.

We urge the MoE to ensure that the usual delay in supplying these items, (especially exercise and note books which sometimes arrive towards the end of term) is averted since they (MoE) have asked parents not to buy them.

We urge school heads to comply fully with the prospectus.

© Africa Education Watch