Why the need for a targeted education policy in Ghana

Though Ghana’s educational system follows the British model and is considered one of the best in West Africa, it is still far away from equal standards across the country and lacks high standards of quality.

Education in Ghana follows the British model but is still far away from equal standards across the country and lacks high standards of quality.

What history says

Though Ghana’s educational system follows the British model and is considered one of the best in West Africa, it is still far away from equal standards across the country and lacks high standards of quality. It is the “right” of every Ghanaian child to be educated regardless of their economic circumstances and so the Educational Reform Programme of 1987 to ensure that even the poor and vulnerable get access to formal education was introduced. In 2000, world leaders committed to ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, would be able to complete a full course of primary schooling by giving them access to free education.

Facts and Figures

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With a global average of about 5%, Ghana spends over 6% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on education, one of the highest expenditures on education as a proportion of GDP compared to other countries in Sub region. Despite huge government contributions to the sector, an extra 84,70 ₵billion a year is needed in order to achieve the new education targets set for the year 2030 as established by UNESCO 2015.

This clearly indicates how huge government is spending on education, this notwithstanding, these investments do not give corresponding outputs in terms of the enrollment and quality of education expected.

A lot more can be done with the same resources used in offering free education to focus more on  the quality and value of education offered. Evidently, the free education reform has seen to the increase in enrollment rates at the basic level. A report by the Forum for Education Reform (IMANI) in December 20, 2013, on the State of Education in Ghana, highlighted enrollment rates of 95% and 78% at the primary and Junior High School levels respectively, an even sharper decline occurring between the JHS and SHS levels where enrollment rate fell below 40% and at the tertiary level, only 12% of the population of tertiary going age being enrolled. This decline, as seen could be attributed to the fact that some parents cannot afford fees at higher levels of education.

Does this then suggest that government should provide free education at the SHS and Tertiary levels too?

This, though laudable, does not sound feasible considering the current state of the economy. Have we thought about introducing technical and vocational courses at the JHS level? Well, one may suggest that these structures already exist. But to what extent have they shaped the average Ghanaian child to be technically or vocationally equipped so that even without furtherance to the SHS or Tertiary level, he or she could still be innovative enough with the knowledge acquired in order to survive on the labour market. Policies such as Free Education at the primary are good but they can be much better if they are targeted towards specific groups – people that need them most, as this will help save resources and yield the most desired results. The Free Education Policy has led to overcrowding in public schools. With a ratio of 30.8 according to the UNESCO institute for statistics in 2014. This problem becomes even worse as the population of Ghana continues to increase. The tendency of this is high class sizes with limited amount of time for subject lessons, and so very little active engagement in class. Very few students are bold enough to ask questions and seek for clarity. The majority only copy what the teacher writes on the board.

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It is interesting note that despite the existence of free education policy, some children of school going age, both in urban suburbs and rural areas, still do not have access to education and even those who do lack the needed learning materials; many of these pupils just sit and listen to the teacher and move out of the class without having grasped a thing.

The reasons – some parents cannot afford school uniforms and other necessary requirements for education: books, pens, learning tools among others. A report on education in Ghana by the UNESCO released in October 16, 2012 shows that  a large population in Ghana cannot read a sentence after leaving school the previous four years. ‘In Ghana, over half of women and over half of men aged 15 to 29 who had completed six years of school could not read a sentence at all in 2008. A further 28% of the young women and 33% of the young men could only read part of a sentence” it says. At the basic and JHS levels, quality of education is often measured by pass rate of students at the end of their final exams, commonly known as the Basic Education Certificate Examinations (B.E.C.E), given a certain average mark scored.

But at the tertiary level, pass rate is not the major issue, rather employability of the student. It can be argued that the economy is not generating enough jobs to cater for the huge masses of graduates from tertiary institutions and also the deficit in the quality of education being offered in terms of employability skills such as analytical and critical reasoning, communication, work ethics and entrepreneurship which are all rudiments for the labour market in the 21st century.

And so the major objective of the school system as designed by the Education Reform programme of 1987 which is to make education more relevant to the socio-economic conditions such that the educated Ghanaian child can live a more productive and meaningful life and as part of it, a cordial principle which aims at the achievement of equal and quality education to play a dynamic role in the overall development of the country is still questionable. What therefore is the point in providing free education for all if there are still no jobs to absorb these graduates upon completion of their tertiary education?

Better Ideas for making Education Policy better

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In conclusion, I recommend that this free Education Policy for All be re-examined. The aim of the policy should not only be to get the Ghanaian child in school but also to stay and graduate unlike the situation where some students drop out along the line due to financial constraints and other related problems. Policies for education, just like for other sectors, need to be more specific and well-targeted. Funded projects should prioritize the less fortunate. To achieve this, there is the need for a credible data system that will be able to easily identify the vulnerable - people living on less than a certain given average amount of income or earnings.

Education should not be totally free for all.

People who earn more should be able to cater for a certain percentage of their children’s fees even though the 1992 Constitution states that basic education shall be free for all. Resources meant toward improving access to education need to be directed towards such projects as providing more teachers equipped with quality and practical training. Teaching has lost its attraction due to poor remuneration and miserable conditions of services; and so some teachers have become demoralized – a reality that reduces Teacher productivity. More educational materials such as modern textbooks, laptops, classrooms, screen projectors and other audio-visuals for the physically challenged and infrastructure such as libraries, computer laboratories  to enhance the teaching and learning process should be incorporated in our Education policies. A review the syllabi for Ghana’s educational system at all levels is certainly inevitable.

Making it more practical rather than theoretical so that students are better equipped to providing practical solutions rather than theoretical solutions. To make these possible, courses like critical thinking and practical reasoning must be introduced right from the basic level to the tertiary level. Funds should also be directed at equipping science schools with more scientific apparatus to make practical lessons easier to understand and relate to establishing more public universities and expanding the private ones to absorb the huge numbers of qualified students in order to reduce the pressure on the existing ones.

Education enriches the individual with skills, technology and innovative ideas needed by society for economic and social development to be able to thrive in a competitive global market. Therefore if there be education, it must be one of quality and educational policies must be geared towards the well-being of those receiving it because quality human resource is a great asset and catalyst for the development of any nation.

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Elorm Esi Abusah is Agricultural Economist and Founder of the Girl Pride Africa Foundation (GPAF)

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