Its about education

1. IMPROVING BASIC
EDUCATION SECTOR
IN GHANA

2. INTRODUCTION
• Education is the backbone of every developed and developing
country. Humans are the main and driving resource to change
the level of development in a country. As part of the 17
Sustainable Development Goals, improving the quality of basic
Education as a fundamental area to development will mean
changing the status quo of a particular country and a ripple
effect on the world as a whole. In Ghana, basic Education and
Education in general, is managed by some stakeholders. They
include Ministry of Education, Ghana Education Service and civil
servant.

3. ROLE OF
STAKEHOLDERS
• The Ministry of Education (MoE) has overall responsibility for
education sector policy, planning and monitoring. Education
delivery and implementation is devolved to institutions,
Districts and Regions through various agencies of MoE.
• Ghana Education Service (GES) is the agency that implements
the Basic and Senior Secondary education components,
including Technical and Vocational institutes. GES is therefore
responsible for schools and, by virtue of the size of these sub-
sectors, about four-fifths of the annual expenditure on
education.

4. LAW GOVERNING EDUCATION IN
GHANA
• The 1961 Constitution of Ghana (amended in 1981) makes a
general provision relating to the public system of basic
education. In the provision, the Constitution endorses that any
child of six years of age, for a period of nine years must be
provided with free education. The 1992 Constitution makes the
provision of infrastructure the responsibility of the Local
Government Authority (District Assemblies).

5. LAW GOVERNING EDUCATION IN
GHANA
• In 1986 the Government initiated a major education sector
reform programme on a 2-6-3-3-4 system of education. Pre-
school education lasts for two years. Nine years of basic
education is made up of six years of primary education and three
years of junior secondary school (JSS) education. The other digits
of 3-4 are for tertiary and university. But emphasis is made on
the basic and fundamental Education with reasons stated
thereof.
• The state of Ghana’s Education for more than a decade now
has fallen below the bar. The standard of quality

7. ENROLLMENT

8. ACCESS
Closely associated to enrollment is the question of access.
Although at the primary level the nation has made significant
gains in terms of enrollment, some children in urban suburbs, not
to mention rural areas do not have access to primary education.
-50% of JHS graduates who pass do not have access into SHS
-Public universities enroll far less than half of qualified students,
private universities have low capacity.
-Private universities should be encouraged to expand their
capacity

9. QUALITY OF
EDUCATION

10. EDUCATION
EXPENDITURE
• With a global average of about 5%, Ghana spends over 6% of
GDP on education. Ghana has one of the highest expenditures
on education as a proportion of GDP compared to other
countries as shown in the table below

11. EDUCATION
EXPENDITURE
• The table below shows education expenditure ratios to GDP
and government expenditure for the years 2008 to 2011

12. MANAGEMENT OF THE PUBLIC
EDUCATION SECTOR
• Since the government during the first Republic took over
church schools, the management of education has become
highly centralized. Despite the overall national decentralization
policy, very little autonomy exists at the district levels of
education. Schools' management and supervision remain weak;
the head teacher has virtually no authority, limited orientation
or training to be a leader and manager, and has little incentive to
perform. Effective decentralization, improved management and
supervision, as well as motivation will be important elements in
turning the state of education around for the better in the public
sector.

13. THE ROLE OF PRIVATE
SECTOR IN EDUCATION
At all levels of education in Ghana, there is a significant
participation in the delivery of education by the private sector;
thus public-private partnership is the norm as the table below
shows.

14. SOURCES OF FUNDING FOR
EDUCATION IN GHANA
• 1. The GoG(Government of Ghana)
• 2. Development Partners (International and National
agencies, NGOs and funding agencies)
• 3. District Assemblies
• 4. Local Communities
• 5. Parents, guardians
• 6. The private sector
• 7. Religious institutions

15. SOURCES OF FUNDING FOR
EDUCATION IN GHANA
• GoG’s Ghana Vision 2020 policy document makes a financial commitment of approximately
40% of GDP to the development of education.
• Development Partners (international and national agencies, NGOs and funding agencies)
working in close collaboration with Government and District Assemblies have also committed
substantial resources to the GoG since 1986 when the education reforms were launched.
• In spite of substantial and accelerated progress in the reforms, the huge numbers of actors and
the systemic and management capacity constraints require that all stakeholders support the
almost recurrent annual agenda.
• Even though the GoG remains the biggest and most reliable source of funding of basic
education, the current financing gaps have implications for prioritizing and targeting
increased financing in terms of inputs and infrastructure, improving the quality of teaching
and supervision while guaranteeing acceptance of learning outcomes at basic education level
on a sustainable basis.

16. RECOMMENDATIONS
• The Ministry and GES need to develop a core group of much younger
managers to sustain the quality of management and supervision.
• The commitment to pursuing effective decentralisation of the GES to
facilitate effective implementation of policies plans and programmes needs
to be pursued.
• To complement the capacity building support of development partners, the
Office of the Civil Service needs to be appraised on the special manpower
needs of the sector. The staff appraisal policy should enhance the
appointment of more youthful senior directors to enhance career
development opportunities thereby giving greater meaning to institutional
memory.

17. RECOMMENDATIONS
• The GES and the MOE should pursue a policy of advertising long management
positions to attract the required technical and professional expertise to enhance
overall performance.
• Institutional capacity building programmes should target all levels including school
management, district, regional and divisional directorate leadership.
• Bottlenecks in disbursement on the part of both the sector ministry and the
implementing agencies on the one hand and the donor partners on the other will also
need to be addressed.
• Community ownership of schools will have to become a reality.
• To implement these recommendations, district assemblies that show initiative need
to be empowered. For example, within clear policy frameworks and guidelines,
districts should be able to choose their own teaching and learning support materials.

18. REFERENCES
• www.modernghana.com/news/509540/1/state-of-
education-in-ghana.html
• http://databank.worldbank.org/data/views/reports/-