Public Agenda (Accra)
31 October 2008
editorial
The first of two Presidential Debates put together by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) came off successfully in Accra on Wednesday night.
Following on the heels of this debate will be a presidential running mates debate on education. The organizers, the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC), have slated the event for November 12 to feature the same four leading political parties - NPP, NDC, CPP and PNC.
The rationale is to provide a platform for each of the running mates to shed more light on their Presidential candidate's education development agendas, policies and visions.
This debate is important because the attainment of all the seven Millennium Development Goal (MDGs) hinge on the success of achieving quality basic education for all children by 2015, which is the second MDG. Across the world, approximately 70 million children are not in school and some 75 million more are likely to drop out before they complete primary school. In Ghana, over 800,000 children face the reality of not receiving basic education.
So far, the Capitation Grant, the Ghana School Feeding Programme (which is still a pilot), and the upgrading of Teacher Training Colleges to diploma awarding institutes are programmes that demonstrate the Government of Ghana's desire to improve education.
But there remain hugely unresolved challenges in basic education delivery, quality, and access which translate into issues of exclusion through out the educational sector. Currently, there is a need for over 26,000 teachers in the basic education sector in Ghana. Crucial is the seeming inability to distribute about 15,000 available teachers equitably across the rural and urban areas in Ghana leading to overcrowding of teachers in urban areas and a shortage of teachers in rural areas.
In addition, over 43% of basic school teachers in Ghana are untrained. Additionally, about 30% of basic schools are without school infrastructure, with 80% of such schools under sheds and trees in rural areas. Of the candidates who passed the Basic Education Certificates Examination (BECE) in 2007, 30% were unable to continue into secondary schools due to poverty, whereas the pass rate for the BECE is 43% in rural areas and 70% in urban areas.
Similarly, the increasing privatization of secondary and tertiary education is a worrying situation depriving the economically vulnerable access to education. The consistent reduction in support for Technical and Vocational Education remains an issue of equal concern. Over the years, financing education has been characterized by huge financial gaps averaging 350 Million USD per annum.
Public Agenda is therefore disturbed about news that only Abu Sakara Foster (CPP) and Madam Petra Maria Amegashie (PNC) had confirmed their participation in the forthcoming debate. Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia (NPP) and Mr. John Dramani Mahama (NDC) were still undecided as at press time on Thusrsday.
Our view is that it is imperative for NPP and NDC running mates to recognize that education is a very crucial sector; a debate on issues bordering on the sector is therefore in the right direction.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Public Agenda. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
