Ghana's Education Sector is in Crisis - President-elect Mahama
Ghana's education sector is grappling with a severe funding crisis, affecting institutions from basic schools to universities. President-elect John Dramani Mahama has sounded the alarm, emphasizing the need for a sustainable funding model to address the sector's immediate and long-term needs.
Speaking during an engagement with key stakeholders in the education sector, Mahama stated that a staggering 1.3 million Ghanaian children lack basic furniture, highlighting the crisis at the basic education level.
According to him, the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy, although well-intentioned, is plagued by inefficiencies and a lack of dedicated funding.
The Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund), a vital source of funding for education, has been collateralized, leaving only 40% of its resources available for infrastructure development. This has resulted in tertiary education institutions facing significant funding shortfalls.
To address these challenges, President-elect Mahama is advocating for a National Education Review Conference, bringing together stakeholders to identify bottlenecks and explore solutions.
“At the last count, 1.3 million Ghanaian children at the basic level do not have basic furniture to sit and study. And so we have a crisis at the basic level. Even though a lot of money is going to the secondary level, it does not come from a dedicated fund, and there is a lot of waste and inefficiency in the way it is being spent on the Free SHS,'' he stated.
“And then at the same time, tertiary education is also starved of funding because the GETFund that was a good source of funding has been collateralised, and so 60 percent of the GETFund has been spent in advance, and so only 40 percent comes to address infrastructure in the whole educational value chain.
“That is a crisis, and that is why I suggested that we should hold a National Education Review Conference and look at what all the bottlenecks are,'' he added.
Source: Lead News Onlne
