Rescuing, resetting Ghana's basic education

Basic education is conceptualised as a range of educational activities that help students meet their basic learning needs. 

It's a foundation for lifelong learning and human development. Though basic education can take place in formal, non-formal and informal settings, in Ghana, basic education is formal and comprises preschool, primary classes one to six, and junior high school forms one to three, and is compulsory. 

Current challenges in basic education

Unfortunately, basic education has faced challenges in recent times, leading to a crisis characterised by:

Dilapidated structures and a huge infrastructural deficit that has increased the number of schools under trees to over 5,000, inadequate and in some cases, lack of textbooks after six years of the introduction of a new curriculum and acute furniture deficit, manifested in lack of furniture for over one million pupils in basic schools.

Others are the irregular payment of capitation grants resulting in arrears equivalent to eight terms, a poor nutrition diet due to the appallingly low allocations for school feeding and government’s heavy indebtedness to caterers and also inadequate and, in some cases, lack of teachers, especially in rural and underserved communities.

The rest are erratic supply of lesson notebooks and required supplies to teachers, compelling teachers to buy such supplies themselves and inadequate and/or lack of sanitary facilities and non-payment of water and electricity.

Commitment and proposals

The NDC remains committed to achieving the full objective of the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) by prioritising investments in basic education to expand access and improve quality.

In furtherance of this, the former President and Presidential Candidate of the NDC, John Dramani Mahama, has presented an elaborate and far-reaching plan to rescue and reset Ghana's neglected basic education.

Among other things, Mr Mahama plans to introduce the ‘Bright Beginnings Initiative’ to revive and repurpose early childhood education for the well-being of Ghanaian children and facilitate seamless integration into continuous schooling and lifelong learning.

Some highlights

He also plans to initiate a policy to integrate early childhood education into basic education supported by appropriate infrastructure, establish a Department for Early Childhood Development under the Ministry of Education with a special mandate to promote early childhood education and also initiate a National Edu-Care Programme (NEP) to establish early child learning facilities in workspaces to support working parents as well as review early childhood curricula to develop a national value-based curriculum that enhances the psychomotor skills of children and equips children with basic life skills.

Other areas of priority include investing in comprehensive professional development programmes for early childhood educators, institutionalise and promote the use of first languages (L1) as the medium of teaching and learning in early years’ education and care and also introduce courses in tertiary institutions to train early childhood facilitators.

Mr Mahama also plans to institute the “Teacher Dabr3” project to provide accommodation facilities for teachers within new school buildings, introduce a special allowance of 20 per cent of basic salary for teachers who accept postings to rural and underserved communities and also abolish the teacher licensure examination, scrap the NPP’s mandatory national service for teacher trainee graduates and restore the automatic employment of newly qualified teachers.

As part of his plan, Mr Mahama will launch a ‘Furniture for All Initiative’ to address the acute deficit at the basic level in partnership with the local carpentry and furniture industry, significantly improve the pupil-to-textbook ratio through the provision of curriculum-based textbooks and embark on an aggressive infrastructure drive to address the increasing phenomenon of schools under trees and rehabilitate dilapidated school buildings.

He also plans to initiate a ‘SmartStart Curriculum' for greater integration of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), coding and digital literacy, and TVET into the basic education curricula and also increase and ensure regular payment of capitation and feeding grants.

Finally, a Mahama government will promote digital literacy at the basic level by providing computer facilities installed with digitised learning materials and upgrade ICT laboratories and also promote solar energy as the primary energy source for school facilities.

Conclusion

I conclude by sharing an initiative and a forum expected to impact positively on basic education in Ghana in the first 120 days of the coming of Mr Mahama’s Presidency.

Mr Mahama will convene a national consultative conference on education to build consensus on needed improvements to the sector and also commence the distribution of free sanitary pads to female students in primary and secondary schools.

The above are but highlights of a synergistic and comprehensive plan to rescue and reset Ghana's educational system, which must necessarily begin with basic education as the foundation. 

The writer is the MP for Builsa South, Deputy Ranking on Education Committee, and NDC Manifesto Spokesperson on Education