On Tuesday March 5 and Wednesday March 13, Eduwatch held inception meetings with stakeholders within the Ga South Municipal and Ada West District Assemblies and Education Directorates. The objective was to discuss key issues leading to a pilot implementation of the Corporate Support Framework for Basic Education Infrastructure in the two Assemblies.

Following an earlier high level meeting with stakeholders from the Office of the Head of Local Government Service (OHLGS) and Ada West and Ga South local assemblies to validate the Framework, the inception meetings aimed at establishing the Corporate Support Desk and initiating the mapping of corporate institutions within the respective assemblies. The Corporate Support Desk Officers will collate and establish key contacts with faith-based and corporate/private sector institutions within their assemblies to kickstart the pilot process.

Education Directors, Planning and Budget Officers, as well the Internal Auditors of the respective assemblies were present at the inception meetings. Eduwatch was represented our Programme Officer, Kwasi Nimo Jnr, and Research Associate, Sahadatu Ali.

The development and pilot of the Corporate Support Framework for Basic Education Infrastructure are part of activities under the SERVE III project, being implemented by Eduwatch with support from the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and in partnership with STAR Ghana Foundation.

© Africa Education Watch

Gushegu (N/R), Feb 27, GNA – Basic and Junior High Schools (JHS) in the Gushegu Municipality of the Northern Region are faced with extreme furniture deficit, which is significantly affecting teaching and learning.

This was observed during a visit by a media team, led by the Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch) in collaboration with the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund), to monitor the availability of desks in schools.

The team’s visit to schools including the Gushegu M/A Primary, Gushegu Demonstration, Maazijung Primary and JHS among others, saw pupils sitting on the floor during lessons while some stood.

In some schools, three or more pupils shared a desk meant for two while others laid on their bellies to write.

Meanwhile, GETFund, by 2023 distributed over 13,000 desks to basic schools across the country.

Out of these numbers, the Gushegu Municipality received 180 desks, which were distributed among 54 schools.

The furniture supply fell short of the demand of the schools as some schools with over 300 student-population, received four desks or less.

Mr Ahmed Tijani, Gushegu Municipal Director of Education, speaking to the media during the visit on Monday, said the furniture situation in the area was dire adding interventions to solve the problem were not sufficient.

He noted that the Municipality received 180 desks from GETFund, which were shared among all schools with some receiving only two pieces.

He said “In some schools, five students share a desk, and this is affecting their performance. It is badly affecting teaching and learning.”

He appealed to government, the Municipal Assembly and NGOs to supply the schools with furniture to provide an enabling learning condition for students.

Some headmasters and students shared frustrations over the furniture deficit situation in their schools.

Mr Amadu Abdul Rashid, Headmaster, Gushegu M/A Block A, described the furniture deficit situation in the school as awful saying pupils’ demeanor in class indicated the level of uneasiness.

He said the school received 10 pieces of the GETFund furniture for a population of 453 pupils adding over 150 pupils were without seats.

Victoria Tottimeh, a form three student of the Maazijung JHS, said three of them were sharing a desk in class, which made writing difficult and created so much discomfort.

She mentioned that there were instances where some students stood during lessons due to inadequate furniture adding the situation deterred learning.

The monitoring followed a study conducted by Eduwatch last year on the impact of desk deficit in public basic schools.

Source: gna.org.gh

Ghana’s basic education subsector has the largest infrastructure deficits, with over one million desks shortage, and over 5,000 schools under trees, sheds and dilapidated structures.

This is despite the delivery of basic education as one of the top priorities of successive governments in the country.

Several policies and programmes have been introduced to promote access and quality in the delivery of basic education.

The desk situation in schools has led to learners adopting improper sitting postures during lessons which subsequently result in postural overload and consequently affect their performance in classroom activities such as writing and reading.

Regional and district disaggregation of desk data reveals how profound the challenge is in some parts of Ghana.

While the national desk shortage is 40 per cent, all the six (6) regions in the northern part of Ghana; Savannah, Northern, North-East, Upper West, Upper East, and Bono East and Oti regions had ratios above the national rate.

The Gushegu Municipality in the Northern Region is one of the hardest hit, with over sixty percent deficit. Primary School children have to sit in fours on dual desk with many sitting on the floor or lying on their bellies to take lessons.

At the Junior High level, the situation is even worse. Teachers complain that the situation is frustrating and impeding academic work. “My school has over 768 children from KG to primary six, but our furniture is only 40 in number and even with that some are broken and so, majority of the children sit on the floor” Mahama Hafiz, Headteacher Maazijung M/A primary said.

“The children are not comfortable and so most of them don’t come to school again. Their parents cannot also afford to provide them with the furniture and so we are just managing here,” he added.

Recent data available through the Ministry of Education’s (MoE) Education Management Information System (EMIS) suggests that as of 2021, 50 per cent (596,949) KG pupils, 40 per cent (1,308,479) primary pupils and 30 per cent (425,465) JHS pupils did not have seating and writing places, bringing the total to 2,330,893, representing 40 per cent of basic school pupils.

The Gushegu Municipal Director of Education Ahmed Teejani Hassan is worried the situation is affecting enrollment.

“There is virtually no furniture in most schools in the municipality and so, the gap is huge and impacting negatively on enrollment and performance,“ he explained.

In 2021, 2022 and 2023, the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) allocated GHC 56.3 million, GHC 201 million and GHC 166.9 million respectively for infrastructure development at that level.

On average, these amounts represent about 30 per cent of the total GETFund allocation to infrastructure.

Out of these allocations, GHC11.5 million, GHC 30 million and GHC 15 million were allocated for the supply of furniture in 2021, 2022 and 2023 respectively.

Following the distribution of over 13,000 desks to basic schools by GETFund, the Gushegu municipality received 180 dual desks, with 90 each supplied to the lower and upper primary levels respectively. This figure is woefully inadequate.

“We recently received some 180 desk from GETFUND, but looking at the number of schools we have that is 103 primary schools and 23 Junior High Schools some got only two out of the number and the populations are huge.”

He appealed to benevolent individuals and organizations to come to their aid. Owing to the scary situation in the Northern Region, the news team traveled to the Kintampo North Municipality in the Bono East region. Here, the situation is even dire as most school children have been compelled to buy their own tables and chairs.

Pupils of Jato Basic School and Gurmaline Islamic Basic School, have to buy their own tables and chairs as the school battles inadequate furniture. Some of the pupils whose parents cannot afford furniture, have to stand or sit on windows to write. Razak Imoro, is a form two pupil of the Gurmaline Islamic Basic School.

“I stand here to take my lessons every day and place my book on the wall to write because my parents cannot afford 2GHC00 to buy me a table and chair, since the school doesn’t have enough. So I have been standing and writing for the past two years.”

The Kintampo North Municipal Director of Education, Sylvester Opoku is worried about the gap.

“I must admit we are suffering here with furniture issues. Even town schools do not have enough furniture, so your guess is as good as mine in the rural schools. Some of them have not received a single desk for over five years and counting and that’s serious, “he bemoaned.

President Akufo-Addo in his latest State of the Nation Address in February this year while touching on education, noted that a lot of resources have gone into improving education infrastructure in the country.

“Mr Speaker, a lot of resources have gone into the provision of infrastructure at all levels of the education system. But a lot remains to be done. Many basic schools require more adequate classrooms and furniture, and the environment in some of these schools can be made more suitable for learning and teaching,” the President said.

More commitments would have to be made to fully address this challenge. Until then children in most basic schools will continue to suffer the consequences.

Source: 3news.com