Develop an emergency infrastructure expansion plan – Education stakeholders urge Govt

The country director for the International Child Development Program (ICDP), Joyce Larnyoh, has urged the government to develop an emergency infrastructure expansion plan.

Mrs. Larnyoh explained that the development of an emergency infrastructure expansion plan will help increase the growth of public basic schools in Ghana.

Speaking at a press briefing in Accra on June 15 on the theme “Issues in the Basic Education Sub-Sector”, she highlighted that about 1,000,000 children are illiterate as there are no public basic schools in the underserved communities.

“About 25% of primary schools across the country do not have J.H.S., a situation that seriously affects basic school completion.”

“The slow growth of the public schools due to the lack of adequate investment in basic school infrastructure suggests the government is shifting the responsibility of providing free, compulsory, universal basic education to the private sector, which is beyond the financial reach of the poor,” Mrs. Larnyoh noted.

Mrs. Larnyoh furthered that the lack of public basic school expansion has resulted in overcrowded classrooms in urban and peri-urban schools, wiping away quality education.

Emphasizing Sustainable Development Goal 4, the National Coordinator for Ghana Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) Platforms on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Levlyn Konadu Asiedu, called on the government to look at the issues of the basic schools to ensure quality education for all so as to fulfill SDG 4.

“We are asking the government to look at the issues and expedite actions to ensure that quality education for all is ensured as a life-long learning process,” she added.

The Executive Director of the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC), Bernice Mpere-Gyekye, pleaded with the government to finance and resource the basic schools and also implement the educational policies effectively to make them suitable and conducive to teaching and learning.

“We don’t want to have a situation where only the rich can educate their children, no. It will go a long way to affect our country in the future, so every child must have access to education, and quality education, of course,” she asserted.

For his part, the Technical Program Manager for Education at World Vision, Andrews Ofosu Dankyi, further admonished the press to stay away from politicizing news regarding basic school education, adding that they should rather engage education experts to talk about educational issues that will yield positive results in the educational sector.

The press conference was organized by the Star-Ghana Foundation in collaboration with World Vision, Action Aid, ICDP, Africa Education Watch, Ghana CSO Platforms for SDGs, GNECC, and the Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED).