School for Life engages Parliamentary Select Committees on Education, Gender
School for Life, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), has engaged Members of the Parliamentary select Committees on Education; and Children, Gender and Women on how to address challenges facing the education sector to ensure quality basic education delivery.
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The engagement held in Tamale centered on challenges facing the education sector such as inadequate furniture, infrastructure deficits, inadequate funding for the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP), and Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund).
Poor infrastructure
The Executive Director of School for Life, Wedad Sayibu who led the discussions, lamented the poor infrastructural situation across the country, particularly in the north, and said it was adversely affecting quality of basic education.
She indicated that statistics from the Ministry of Education showed that desk deficits in 2021 alone was about 596,000 for kindergarten (KG), representing half of the national KG population, and 1.28 million pupils in primary schools.
The desk situation, she noted, was worse at the primary level in underserved regions such as Northern, North-East, Savannah, Upper East, Upper West, Bono East and Oti regions.
She added that there was also evidence of steady decline in funding for basic education by the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) with only 16 per cent of GETFund’s infrastructure expenditure budget allocated to basic education in 2022, with secondary education receiving about 44 per cent.
Mrs. Sayibu, therefore, called for the implementation of deliberate policies targeted at ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals 4.
According to her, addressing these fundamental challenges was very key in improving educational outcomes and fostering equitable access to education for all irrespective of geographical location.
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Concerted efforts
Speaking at the event, the Member of Parliament for Tema East Constituency and Member of the Gender and Children Committee, Isaac Ashai Odamtten, called for concerted efforts in addressing challenges facing the education sector.
He said “as Members of Parliament we need more session with institutions such as school for life to be brought together for stakeholder’s discussion as that will go a long to improve education at all levels”.
For her part, the Member of Parliament for Dadekotopon and Member of the Gender and Children Committee, Rita Naa Odoley gave the assurance that they would look at the budgetary allocations against actual disbursements to ensure value for money.
Other members were present were Member of Parliament for Bia, Dr. Augustine Tawiah, Member of Parliament Oforikrom, Dr. Emmanuel Marfoh, and Member of Parliament for Anlo, Richard Kwami Sefe.