On Wednesday June 5, Eduwatch's Executive Director met with development partners in the education sector to discuss education financing and its implications for the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.

Also discussed, were challenges in education financing, measures to improve on spending efficiency, Value For Money and equitable financing, to ensure a balanced attainment of SDGs across basic, secondary/TVET and other sectors.

The meeting was held at the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) office in Accra.

© Africa Education Watch

On Thursday June 13, Eduwatch participated in a National Stakeholder’s Forum on Early Childhood Education (ECE) organised by Children Believe in collaboration the Ghana Education Service. Under the theme, “Quality Early Childhood Education for All Children in Ghana: The Time Is Now”, the forum was held, in commemoration of the Day of the African Child (DAC) 2024.

In his presentation on "Key challenges facing ECE in Ghana", the Executive Director for Eduwatch, Kofi Asare, indicated that infrastructural deficits in ECE, especially schools and desks was driven by inequitable financing of education and overbloated salary budgets of the sector. He added that these further limit funds available for investment in infrastructure across the sector.

At the panel discussion “Strategies to improve ECE in Ghana”, Mr. Asare, called for a stronger civil society coalition to demand a Legislative Instrument for the Pre-tertiary Education Act, which will provide funding norms to guide disbursement of education infrastructure funds to ensure early childhood, basic and secondary receive equitable shares of the education budget.

The National Stakeholders Forum was held at the Tomereik Hotel in East Legon, Accra.

© Africa Education Watch

On Friday June 14, Executive Director for Eduwatch, Kofi Asare met the Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES) to discuss the impending teacher postings. Eduwatch's specific objective was to influence the postings in favor of deprived districts with high deficits, especially at the KG level.

We called for a demand-driven teacher deployment system that is based only on teacher vacancies declared by the districts. When done, this will aid in eliminating the over-concentration of surplus teachers in urban areas, and focus on teacher availability deficits in deprived schools.

© Africa Education Watch

The National Democratic Congress (NDC), through the office of Inter-Party Affairs and Civil Society Organizations (CSO) led by Dr. Peter Boamah Otokunor, engaged Africa Education Watch.

The meeting, aimed at encouraging a collaborative relationship and aiding in policy formulation towards improving the education sector in Ghana.

Mr. Kofi Asare the Executive Director of Africa Education Watch expressed its enthusiasm for the partnership and highlighted that the organization always work with the Ghana Education Service (GES) and other educational institutions to enhance the quality of education.

During the discussion, Mr. Asare emphasized several critical issues affecting the education sector. One of the primary concerns raised was the issue of education financing. He aslo lamented the inadequate funding which hampers the effective implementation of educational programs and infrastructure development. The organization stressed the need for increased investment to ensure sustainable educational reforms.

Africa Education Watch also called for reforms within the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) concerning the administration of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). They advocated for changes that would enhance the credibility and fairness of these examinations, ensuring that they accurately reflect students' abilities and knowledge.

A significant issue highlighted by Africa Education Watch was the high rate of school dropouts, particularly in deprived communities. They pointed out that approximately 4,000 primary schools in Ghana do not have Junior High School (JHS) facilities, leading to a dropout rate of about 20 percent after primary school. This alarming statistic underscores the need for urgent intervention to keep children in school and ensure they receive a complete basic education.

Dr. Peter Boamah Otokunor, on behalf of the NDC, expressed deep appreciation for the impactful work of Africa Education Watch in the education sector. He reaffirmed the NDC's position as a social democratic party committed to engaging with key stakeholders to drive educational reforms. Dr. Otokunor reiterated former President John Mahama's promise that within his first 100 days in office, he would convene all educational experts to assess the educational sector and provide necessary recommendations for improvement.

He reiterate that the engagement marks the beginning of a collaborative effort to address the pressing challenges within Ghana's education system and to work towards a more equitable and effective educational framework.

Source: modernghana.com

On Tuesday June 18, Executive Director for Eduwatch, Kofi Asare, participated in a panel discussion on the Day of the African Child (DAC), organised by Compassion International Ghana (CIGH). The discussion was under the theme, “Building safe school systems in Ghana for lifelong learning: from commitments to action.”

The DAC, which is also known as the International Day of the African Child, has been celebrated on June 16 every year since 1991, when it was first initiated by the Organization of African Unity (OAU). As part of continuous measures to promote quality and safe educational systems for Ghanaian children, CIGH in partnership with Child Rights International (CRI), held the national stakeholder forum to commemorate this year’s DAC. The event brought together key stakeholders in the education and child protection space to assess the current safety systems in Ghanaian schools, analyse what is working, the challenges, and proffer recommendations for improvement.

Mr. Asare in his submissions, stressed the need to make schools safer for Africa’s children, by promoting inclusive infrastructure provision, supportive teacher relationships, security, inclusive Teaching and Learning Resources (TLRs), and learner friendly pedagogy.In attendance were representatives from the Ministry of Education, Ghana Education Service, Department of Children, Traditional Authorities, religious and Civil Society Organisations.

© Africa Education Watch

On Thursday June 20, Eduwatch, with support from the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET) held a research inception meeting with key Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) stakeholders to kickstart a study aimed at building TVET systems for economic transformation. The meeting sought to brief stakeholders on the study objectives, solicit inputs into the methodology, and garner institutional support to enhance the research.

The "Building TVET Systems for Economic Transformation study" is being run simultaneously in 6 other African countries, to investigate how TVET systems should evolve, to equip young Africans with the right skills set for future jobs. Eduwatch is undertaking this study as part of our objective to drive the development of a highly competitive human capital in Africa.

Stakeholders committed to support Eduwatch and ACET throughout the research and advocacy phase. Institutional data gathering for the study begins in July.

Participating institutions included the Ministry of Education, Commission for TVET, Ghana TVET Service, Opportunity Industrialisation Technical Institute (OITI) and FOSDA.

© Africa Education Watch

“Almost half a million (454,014) girls in Ghana aged 4 to 17 years have never attended school. Over a quarter (27.6%) of these girls are in the Northern Region which has the highest number of girls that have never attended school (125,287).”

- GSS, 2022.

Education is a function of investments; both school and household. An integrated approach, which improves education access, retention and quality, and economic livelihoods is a sin qua non to sustain basic school enrollment to completion, and secondary transition in the impoverished northern regions.

The following are recommended if the Government of Ghana truly wishes to curtail and prevent the growing Kayaye population across the country:

1. At the basic education level, build schools in the many underserved rural communities, and make basic schooling attractive by providing a proper hot meal, free exercise books, textbooks and uniforms, decent school furniture etc., and shortening the distance travelled daily to school (below 5km), while ensuring teachers are well housed and motivated.

All the above have been on paper for decades but very poorly implemented. We must be purposive.

2. At the community level, develop climate responsive alternative livelihoods in the communities to mitigate the high poverty levels due to failing agriculture, build economic resilient systems, and protect our girls.

NB: Let us avoid the dishing out of inputs to party faithfuls, in the pretence of developing alternative livelihoods of a community.

Many of these integrated aporoaches have been successfully executed by NGOs in some communities up north.

Government should just replicate the models with an honest mindset to solving a problem, rather than merely acting political.

© Africa Education Watch