The Assault on the Public School System in Ghana…

Thirty years ago, one could be fairly certain that products from the public basic school system were in a position to rival their colleagues from the private schools for a place in the top secondary schools of the country. Indeed, the phenomenon of private basic education was not even rife as it is today.

That leaves one to wonder at which point our public basic education system deterioratedto such abysmal levels. One shudder to think about the quality of education being offered in those hideous structures we have passed off as schools for our kids.

None other than the famous Philip Quaque Boys’ school in Cape Coast encapsulates the sorry state of the dilapidated infrastructural facilities our public basic schools have been saddled with within our country. The sorry state of that school, which was the first to be established in the then Gold Coast reflects the neglect that our public basic schools have suffered in the last thirty years.

This level of inadequate investment in the infrastructural needs of public basic schools must be a blot on our conscience. It is shameful that it had to take the intervention of the President during the Independence Day celebrations in Cape Coast to announce that the government was going to address the infrastructural challenge confronting the school. What was the district education office, regional education office and regional coordinating council all doing about the situation prior to the visit of the President?

It is such a shame that in 2022, Ghana still has some 5400 public schools existing under trees, and dilapidated structures. With many facing acute lack of desks in classrooms. Even in cases where the desks are available, the nature of the desks we are still providing for use by school kids is simply not fit for purpose in this 21st century.

It is unconscionable that three years after the implementation of a new curriculum programme, government is yet to provide basic schools with basic textbooks to facilitate teaching and learning. No matter the good intentions of the new curriculum, without the provision of textbooks and other required teaching and learning materials, I struggle to see how the aims of the reforms will be achieved.

Education remains the most important lever for social mobility. For most families, education remains the only lever available to lift one generation from the shackles of poverty. It is therefore important as a society, we do not tend to perpetuate a class system through our educational architecture.

Whilst the recent policy of reserving a 30% quota for public schools in the placement of students into Grade ‘A’ schools after the Basic Education Certificate Examination is commendable, such an affirmative action policy cannot be a long-term solution. It is instructive government takes a hard look at the issue of supervision and governance in public schools.

It is a known fact that supervision in most public schools in Ghana leaves much to be desired, if not non-existent. Parents of pupils have very little say in assessing the work of teachers. This creates an undesirable gap between two major stakeholders in the education ecosystem. Teacher absenteeism continues to be a problem facing most public schools especially in rural areas. This denies school pupils of much needed contact hours.

The Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP) is a collaboration between the World Bank and the government of Ghana targeting 10,000 low performing basic schools (at the kindergarten, primary and Junior High School levels) over a five-year period with the objective of improving the quality of education in this low-performing basic education schools and strengthening equity in the education sector.

In its annual school performance plus inspection aggregate report on 1000 inspected GALOP schools by the National Schools Inspectorate Authority (NASIA), out of a total of 10,842 teachers across the 1000 schools inspected, 2496 (23%) were absent at the time of the inspection. On assessment of quality of school leadership, which measures how well a school is managed, 680 (68%) of the schools inspected rated unsatisfactory.

552 (55.2%) of the schools inspected were rated unsatisfactory for infrastructure with 425 (42.5%) not having enough classrooms. This means multiple classes had to be combined for teaching. This problem was compounded by inadequate number of teachers and low enrolment. 876 (87.6%) did not have enough desks resulting in pupils sitting on floors.

The statistics even makes for more grimmer reading when one looks at access to libraries and information and communications technology laboratories. Only 105 (10.5%) had school libraries with 110 (11%) having access to Information Communication Technology laboratories.

If the kids are not having access to Information Communication Technology laboratories then one is left wondering what they learning from the Information Communication Technology subject in the new curriculum. Not to think of the disadvantage this will place the kids in future in the competition for Artificial Intelligence jobs, which experts predict will displace a lot of conventional jobs in the near future.

It is in the interest of the country that we immediately halt this dangerous decline in the quality of public education. The ministries of education and local government must as a matter of urgency mandate their respective agencies; the Ghana Education Service district offices and Metropolitan, Municipal and District assemblies to conduct an infrastructure audit of all public basic schools in the country to ascertain the structural integrity of building housing pupils. Those not-fit-for purposes must be renovated or new ones constructed for schools-under-trees immediately. These new structures should be modeled on the best modern architecture for basic schools with access to portable water and toilet facilities.

The provision of desk for schools must also be prioritised. Indeed, in line with the new curriculum for basic schools, the use of dual and mono-desk by lower and upper primary pupils must cease immediately with the provision of the appropriate furniture as recommended by the curriculum. The cost for doing this is not beyond the ability of this country.

The need for improved supervision, monitoring and evaluation in public schools cannot be overemphasised. This will go a long way to check teacher absenteeism and improve on the quality of teaching at the basic level. Improving on the quality of teaching at the basic level cannot be achieved without a re-look at the training of basic school teachers in our colleges of education. It is a welcoming news learning about the reforms taking place in our colleges of education but we must strive to achieve qualitative improvement with this reforms instead of just being nice policies on paper.

The increment of the capitation grant by 125% to 10 cedis in 2019 was a timely intervention but to ensure the smooth running of public schools, the amount should be increased further and the ministry ensure the timely and regular release of funds to ensure smooth management of the schools. The practice of payment of funds after two or three school terms have passed is not the best and must cease.

The positive correlation between the school feeding programme and enrollment in most basic schools in rural areas is self-evident. The school feeding programme is a food security social intervention programme introduced by the government of Ghana in 2005 with the objective of reducing poverty, increasing enrollment as well as retention among basic school pupils in Ghana.

This was to be achieved through the provision of one meal a day to pupils of beneficiary schools with the specific goal of reducing hunger, malnutrition, increasing enrollment and boosting domestic food productions among low-income communities in Ghana. On paper, this appears to be a very laudable initiative. Indeed, various studies conducted in beneficiary communities by different researchers shows a positive impact of the programme on school enrollment and retention among pupils.

However, the current 98 pesewas per pupil feeding grant paid under the programme is woefully inadequate and cannot support the provision of a balanced diet to beneficiary pupils under the programme. This amount must as a matter of urgency be increased immediately. Under the 2022 budgetary allocation to the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, GH¢881million has been earmarked for the programme. This represent a rapid increment of the budgetary allocations of GH¢262million in 2019, GH¢470million in 2020 and GH¢489million in 2021.

The question remains; are we getting value for money with this budgetary allocation? That may be the topic for another polemic.

I would like to conclude by reminding ourselves of the tragedy of the six kindergarten pupils of the Breman Gyambra Methodist KG School who died when their kindergarten school block collapsed on the 31st of January, 2017. We owe it as a country to the souls of Hannah Mensah and Joana Ayensu, both six years; Christiana Amponsah, seven; Gladys Ampofo, three; Shaidatu Abdulai, four, and Hibatullai Abdulai, five who were killed by the negligence of the state to prevent another disaster like that. We must save the millions of kids relying on our public school system. It is the least we can do for them. The over-privatization of basic school education must cease now…