Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) operating in the education sector have reiterated the need for the Ministry of Finance to uncap the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) so as to free up funds for infrastructure.
The call by the CSOs follows the current situation at the Ghana Senior High School (GHANASCO), Tamale, where students were captured on video using washrooms as accommodation and pleading with the government for more boarding facilities.
With the capping of the GETFund levy in 2017 having deprived the education sector of some GH₵5.7billion to date, the stakeholders believe these funds could have solved a chunk of the infrastructure challenges in schools across the country.
The CSOs, meanwhile, are urging the Ghana Education Service (GES) to reconsider its directive that the headmaster and senior housemaster of the school should step aside while investigations are carried out.
The CSOs said the government is perfectly aware that most schools are facing accommodation and other infrastructure challenges, leading to double-track systems.
Convener for Campaign Against Privatisation and Commercialisation of Education (CAPCOE), Richard Kwashie Kovey, in his response on the topic to the B&FT, emphasised that the reason the Free Senior High School programme is running green and gold tracks system is due to huge infrastructure deficit which is public knowledge; hence, the GES must be realistic with the situation.
“The reason CSOs and teacher unions have been calling for the uncapping of the GETFund is to fix these challenges. A face-saving approach to solving the problem is just an indication of the leadership capacity gap in addressing challenges confronting our schools with regard to resource allocation to promote quality education.
“It is public knowledge that our schools have a huge infrastructure deficit; one of the reasons we are running green and gold tracks. The concerns of Ghanaians about the situation in the schools are about how these classrooms and boarding facilities can be upgraded to provide a conducive and hygienic learning environment not only for the SHS in Tamale, but others across the country,” he said.
He mentioned that it was about time “we treated these challenges as national issues that require every hand on deck, rather than attaching colours to them because students do not go to school in parties, religious or ethnic colours”.
He further stated that teachers and headmasters are always finding innovative ways to maximise the limited resources; and therefore, should not be victimised when such issues pop up.
“Teachers and heads are not development agents but policy implementers. They manage the resources available and that includes converting available facilities into habitable ones.
“I would plead with the Director-General of GES, Eric Nkansah, to reverse the decision. It doesn’t resolve the problem,” he added.
Similarly, Executive Director of the Institute for Education Studies (IFEST) Dr. Peter Anti Partey, on his part, said: “The GES should use the same energy to address the teething challenges facing the Free SHS system in the country to create an education programme that every parent will be proud of”.
The GHANASCO saga
A video report by a journalist has been circulating on social media, causing concern among parents and the public. The video showed how students of the school are using toilet cubicles as dormitories. The students also narrated how the situation is impacting their health and well-being.
A situation that the GES has debunked, stating that the school has enough infrastructure to house the current number of students on admission, and can even accommodate extra 300 students if the need be.
