IMPROVING BASIC EDUCATION

SECTOR IN GHANA

INTRODUCTION•Education is the backbone of every developed and developing country. Humans are the main and driving resource to change the level of development in a country. As part of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, improving the quality of basic Education as a fundamental area to development will mean changing the status quo of a particular country and a ripple effect on the world as a whole. In Ghana, basic Education and Education in general, is managed by some stakeholders. They include Ministry of Education, Ghana Education Service and civil servant.

ROLE OF STAKEHOLDERS

• The Ministry of Education (MoE) has overall responsibility for education sector policy, planning and monitoring. Education delivery and implementation is devolved to institutions, Districts and Regions through various agencies of MoE.

• Ghana Education Service (GES) is the agency that implements the Basic and Senior Secondary education components, including Technical and Vocational institutes. GES is therefore responsible for schools and, by virtue of the size of these sub-sectors, about four-fifths of the annual expenditure on education.

LAW GOVERNING EDUCATION IN GHANA

•The 1961 Constitution of Ghana (amended in 1981) makes a general provision relating to the public system of basic education. In the provision, the Constitution endorses that any child of six years of age, for a period of nine years must be provided with free education. The 1992 Constitution makes the provision of infrastructure the responsibility of the Local Government Authority (District Assemblies).

LAW GOVERNING EDUCATION IN GHANA

•In 1986 the Government initiated a major education sector reform programme on a 2-6-3-3-4 system of education. Pre-school education lasts for two years. Nine years of basic education is made up of six years of primary education and three years of junior secondary school (JSS) education. The other digits of 3-4 are for tertiary and university. But emphasis is made on the basic and fundamental Education with reasons stated thereof.

•The state of Ghana’s Education for more than a decade now has fallen below the bar. The standard of quality

ENROLLMENT

ACCESSClosely associated to enrollment is the question of access. Although at the primary level the nation has made significant gains in terms of enrollment, some children in urban suburbs, not to mention rural areas do not have access to primary education.

-50% of JHS graduates who pass do not have access into SHS-Public universities enroll far less than half of qualified students, private universities have low capacity.-Private universities should be encouraged to expand their capacity

QUALITY OF EDUCATION

EDUCATION EXPENDITURE

•With a global average of about 5%, Ghana spends over 6% of GDP on education. Ghana has one of the highest expenditures on education as a proportion of GDP compared to other countries as shown in the table below

EDUCATION EXPENDITURE

•The table below shows education expenditure ratios to GDP and government expenditure for the years 2008 to 2011

MANAGEMENT OF THE PUBLIC EDUCATION SECTOR•Since the government during the first Republic took over church schools, the management of education has become highly centralized. Despite the overall national decentralization policy, very little autonomy exists at the district levels of education. Schools' management and supervision remain weak; the head teacher has virtually no authority, limited orientation or training to be a leader and manager, and has little incentive to perform. Effective decentralization, improved management and supervision, as well as motivation will be important elements in turning the state of education around for the better in the public sector.

THE ROLE OF PRIVATE SECTOR IN EDUCATION

At all levels of education in Ghana, there is a significant participation in the delivery of education by the private sector; thus public-private partnership is the norm as the table below shows.

SOURCES OF FUNDING FOR EDUCATION IN

GHANA• 1. The GoG(Government of Ghana)• 2. Development Partners (International and

National agencies, NGOs and funding agencies)• 3. District Assemblies• 4. Local Communities• 5. Parents, guardians• 6. The private sector• 7. Religious institutions

SOURCES OF FUNDING FOR EDUCATION IN

GHANA• GoG’s Ghana Vision 2020 policy document makes a financial commitment of approximately

40% of GDP to the development of education.

• Development Partners (international and national agencies, NGOs and funding agencies) working in close collaboration with Government and District Assemblies have also committed substantial resources to the GoG since 1986 when the education reforms were launched.

• In spite of substantial and accelerated progress in the reforms, the huge numbers of actors and the systemic and management capacity constraints require that all stakeholders support the almost recurrent annual agenda.

• Even though the GoG remains the biggest and most reliable source of funding of basic education, the current financing gaps have implications for prioritizing and targeting increased financing in terms of inputs and infrastructure, improving the quality of teaching and supervision while guaranteeing acceptance of learning outcomes at basic education level on a sustainable basis.

RECOMMENDATIONS• The Ministry and GES need to develop a core group of much younger

managers to sustain the quality of management and supervision.

• The commitment to pursuing effective decentralisation of the GES to facilitate effective implementation of policies plans and programmes needs to be pursued.

• To complement the capacity building support of development partners, the Office of the Civil Service needs to be appraised on the special manpower needs of the sector. The staff appraisal policy should enhance the appointment of more youthful senior directors to enhance career development opportunities thereby giving greater meaning to institutional memory.

RECOMMENDATIONS• The GES and the MOE should pursue a policy of advertising long management positions to attract the required

technical and professional expertise to enhance overall performance.

• Institutional capacity building programmes should target all levels including school management, district, regional and divisional directorate leadership.

• Bottlenecks in disbursement on the part of both the sector ministry and the implementing agencies on the one hand and the donor partners on the other will also need to be addressed.

• Community ownership of schools will have to become a reality.

• To implement these recommendations, district assemblies that show initiative need to be empowered. For example, within clear policy frameworks and guidelines, districts should be able to choose their own teaching and learning support materials.

REFERENCES• www.modernghana.com/news/509540/1/state-of-educatio

n-in-ghana.html• http://databank.worldbank.org/data/views/reports/-