Accra — The Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC) has stated the urgent need for G7 countries to fulfill their promises made in support of education in Ghana.

The resolution to leaders of G7 countries came after a roundtable by GNECC to assess donor commitments to education financing and its impact on basic education in Ghana; and as a prelude to the upcoming UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) emergency summit scheduled for September 25, 2008 in New York.

In a release, GNECC made apparent reference to the promise by G7 countries to the effect that, "No country seriously committed to education for all will be thwarted in their achievement of this goal by a lack of resources" and specifically pledging 0.7% of their Gross National Income to least developed countries who show commitment to achieving education for all.

According to GNECC, broken promises by G7 countries is illustrated by a financial gap averaging about $300million per annum in Ghana's education budget, a reduction of about 5.5% in donor support to education budget and lack of commitment by G7 countries to support education re-current budget thereby limiting government's ability to increase teachers' salaries.

"The outcomes of the lack of adequate financial support to basic education include over 800,000 children who have no access to basic education, the fact that 28,335 newly trained teachers are required to ensure that all children in Ghana have access to quality basic education and the fact that majority of basic school infrastructure (especially in rural areas) remain in a deplorable state."

Further outcomes, it stated include the fact that less than 59% of primary school teachers are trained, weakened capacity of government to increase spending on the capitation grant, School Feeding Program and adequate motivation for teachers is highly limited, in addition to its associated low passes in the Basic Education Certificate Examination.