Revitalising, resetting education in Ghana

Following the election of John Mahama as President of the Republic of Ghana, he is determined to reset Ghana.

To take an informed decision regarding education in Ghana, he set up a national Educational Reform Committee to recommend ways of transforming the educational system, especially the Free SHS policy, which has presented serious challenges.

Historical development of education

Education in Ghana started way back in the Gold Coast era around 1843 with the coming  of the Basel mission, followed by the Scottish mission and other missionaries.

The mission started to spread the Word of God through evangelism and to penetrate the Gold Coast, they did set up missionary schools at Osu (Osu Salem) and Akropong (Teacher Training College).

Following this development, other missionaries, including the Wesleyan churches, joined in around 1916. Thereafter, around 1980, Ghana introduced the junior high school system.

Until then, it was a six-year primary school and a four-year middle school, followed later by secondary schooling, with the Mfantsipim secondary school being the first to be built in the country.

From these building blocks, our first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, built a lot of secondary schools among which are Ghana Secondary School, Accra Technical College, Accra Girls’, Yaa Asantewaa, Tamale Secondary School and many others.

Since 1980, Ghana’s educational system has phased out gradually from six-year primary schooling and six-year secondary schooling to four-year junior high school (JHS) and two-year senior high school (SHS).

Free SHS

In 2017, the government introduced the free Senior High School (SHS) policy, one of the most transformative educational reforms in recent decades.

However, due to very limited infrastructure, most schools had to run the double-track system to enable them to roll out this initiative.

The free SHS policy aimed at ensuring equitable access to secondary education for all Ghanaian students and improving education quality.

This policy significantly altered the landscape of public education financing in the country and has fallen short of its goal and presenting Ghanaians with the following challenges.

Challenges of free SHS

The Free SHS policy was implemented to remove financial barriers that prevented many students from accessing secondary education. However, the high enrolment resulted in:

• Overcrowding and strain on infrastructure in classrooms and halls of schools.
•) Double-track system where schools had to run shifts during academic terms.
•) Inadequate furniture, textbooks, dining and accommodation facilities
• Lack of toilets and other hygiene facilities.
•) Lack of dormitories.
•) Inadequate water supply.
•) Deterioration of classroom facilities and quality school buildings
•) Disparity between rural and urban schools and financial implications for the Ghana government budget and the Ministry of Education.
•) High public debt and inflation.
•) The quality of the products of these schools is nothing to write home about.
• This Free SHS has largely been dependent on government revenue, including taxes and grants from international partners.

Recommendation

With the government’s commitment to revitalising and resetting free SHS in Ghana, it is recommended that the government set up a

• Schools Infrastructure Development Department or Authority within the Ministry of Education to ensure, among others, that all schools' infrastructure is modern and fit for purpose and well-positioned to support higher academic performance.

• The Ghana government should introduce a five per cent levy on diaspora remittances to Ghana.

In 2024, Diasporan remittances to Ghana worked out to $4.6 billion. Such a levy will take e-levy charges from Ghanaians and use them to fund schools’ infrastructure.

• Furthermore, by the SSNIT Act, all social security revenues collected by SSNIT are paid to the Bank of Ghana and invested in Treasury bills.

The yearly revenue collected from Ghanaian workers works out to over $2.4 billion per year. Amending this act and diversifying 5 per cent to fund schools’ infrastructure development and maintenance.

This fund will be restricted. That’s ring-fenced to schools’ infrastructure only.

These funding sources are sustainable and will help reduce public debt and inflation.

Ensuring Ghanaian schools’ infrastructure is well-positioned and delivered on infrastructure fit for purpose.

Email: Jonasquarcoopome@gmail.com