$2.5bn Needed to eliminate educational infrastructure deficit — Minister

The government needs $2.5 billion between 2025 and 2028 to eliminate the huge infrastructure deficit in the educational sector, the Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, has said.

"From where I sit, between now and 2028, if we are to respond to all the infrastructure needs in the education sector alone, we will require an investment of $2.5 billion to get our infrastructure running," he said.

Mr Iddrisu, who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamale South, was responding to concerns raised by members of the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) during its meeting in Sunyani last Wednesday.

Infrastructure gap

He explained that the infrastructure gap was huge because the previous government failed to expand the facilities during the implementation of the Free Senior High School (SHS) programme to deal with the expected increases in enrolment.

A section of the participants

He said the government had planned to expand infrastructure to end the double-track system by 2027 since the system was not desirable for academic work.

Mr Iddrisu urged the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to identify some CHASS schools with infrastructure deficits to invest in the improvement of the projects in schools.

"We expect that you should have a dedicated formula that looks into expanded accommodations and classrooms for a number of CHASS schools to increase their intake," he said.

Mr Iddrisu said this year alone, the government would be required to dedicate GH¢6.5 billion to finance the Free SHS policy.

He challenged CHASS and the public to continue to search for answers to sustainable finance of the Free SHS programme.

Mr Iddrisu said one of the immediate Free SHS funding alternatives available for the government was the GETFund.

He therefore urged GETFund to find innovative ways of procuring furniture and textbooks for schools across the country.

Mr Iddrisu challenged GETFund to increase its emergency budget allocation to deal with emergency situations such as rainstorms and fire outbreaks.

Shooting incident

He condemned the shooting incident that occurred at the Adventist SHS in Kumasi on Friday, April 4, 2025.

Mr Iddrisu charged CHASS to review its inspectorate division in schools to take away dangerous weapons from students.

"In order for guns, knives and other tools and equipment of violence not to be found in our schools, you have the full support of the government to initiate those inspections," he said.

That, according to him, would create a serene learning environment, explaining that the recent development could not be part of the training of a Ghanaian child because "that is immoral, violent and not a Ghanaian culture".

"When I heard about the shooting incident, my immediate response was ‘unGhanaian’," he said.

Mr Iddrisu, however, urged members of CHASS to treat students with compassion, fairness and justice.

Corruption

On corruption, he said the ministry was currently conducting an audit of the Computerised School Selection Placement System (CSSPS) to address the issue of corruption in the school placement.

Mr Iddrisu said the ministry expected the placement system to function effectively with minimal human interference to eliminate corruption.

Regarding outstanding salary arrears, he said the Ministry of Finance was in discussions with the bureaucrats at the Ministry of Education to verify and authenticate the arrears for settlement.

He underscored the need for the retooling of school laboratories and the supply of vehicles, including buses, to facilitate their movement.

Commendation

The President of CHASS, Rev. Fr Stephen Owusu Sekyere, commended the government for the timely disbursement of funds to procure food items to feed students.

He said the crucial intervention of disbursing funds to schools to purchase food items had helped to improve the feeding of students.

Rev. Fr Sekyere, however, appealed to the minister to come out with a clear policy guideline to govern their dealings with the Parents Association (PAs) in their schools.

That, he said, would foster understanding and prevent unnecessary friction and interdiction of their members.

Rev. Fr Sekyere urged the minister to try and investigate before interdicting heads of schools and act with compassion when they went wrong.

Challenges

He mentioned five years of outstanding arrears, inadequate infrastructure, furniture, installation of prepaid electricity meters in some schools, a lack of printers and modern cooking stoves as some of the challenges in schools.

Rev. Fr Sekyere said those challenges continued to create discomfort for teachers and students, threatening the delivery of quality education.

He appealed to politicians and other opinion leaders hosting the schools to stop interfering in their activities.

Writer's email: biiya.ali@graphic.com.gh