Address Gaps At The Basic Education Level – SEND Ghana Urges Gov’t

SEND Ghana, a Non-Governmental Organization, has called on government to address gaps at the basic education level.

According to them, funds should be allocated for basic education in order to build strong foundation for Ghanaian children.

At an engagement session with stakeholders on the 2018 Education Budget in Accra on Tuesday, Mrs. Harriet Nuamah Agyemang, a Senior Programme Officer at SEND Ghana, said government is focusing more on Secondary education and has neglected the basic level, leaving the current quality of learning at the basic level very low.

She explained that a significant number of children from age 4 to 15 years, 1 out of 5 in KG and 1.3million basic school children are still not in school.

“For instance in the 2017/18 academic year enrolment in basic increased by only 0.55% to 7,778,842 whiles the cumulative completion rate in the complementary basic education is 67percent of 182,652 out-of-school children. Yet the budget had limited attention for them.

The pre-school and primary education requires critical financial attention for the training of teachers and provision of teaching and learning materials among others to enable proper development of the cognitive foundation of pupils in preparation for secondary level education,” she lamented.

Free SHS

Touching on government’s flagship ‘Free SHS’, Mrs. Nuamah lauded the initiative and further stated that the initiative has led to increased enrolment in Senior High Schools.

This, she said has exposed the infrastructural deficit and logistical challenges, which is affecting the smooth implementation of the policy, impeding sound academic work. Tertiary institutions cannot be left out.

She therefore recommended that government should ensure that funds allocated are timely disbursed in their entirety to strengthen the management systems of schools and directorates of Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Ministry of Education.

“Implement all pro-poor policy interventions such as capitation grant, free SHS, examination subsidy, among others,” she stressed.

By: Emmanuel Yeboah Britwum/ thePublisher