Textbooks, learning materials, capitation grant, feeding grant for special schools etc. will continue to be in deficit supply or arrears in 2023 as a result of the decline in the allocation of resources to basic schools in Ghana. This was contained in a post by Africa Education Watch copied to GhanaEducation.org
The Executive Director of EduWatch, Mr. Kofi Asare and his team at the Africa Education Watch, have analyzed the trade off between fCUBE and FSHS and taking a peep into the 2023 basic and fSHS budget and what it offers the education sector in 2023
An analysis of the goods and services budget of the Ministry of Education, from which Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) and Free SHS are funded reveal a disturbing spectacle per the findings of EduWatch.
According to the results of the analysis carried out on the 2023 basic and fSHS vis-à-vis the 2023 budget,
a. The allocation to FCUBE decreased by 43% from GHC 292 million in 2022 to GHC 167 million in 2023 which is not good because over 6 million children are involved here.
b. The allocation to free SHS/TVET increased by 28% from GHC 2.3 billion to about GHC 3 billion, which is good. About 1.3 million children are involved here.
The Goods and Services budget is the source of Teaching and Learning Resources (TLRs), including the Capitation Grant, examination subsidy. Feeding grants to special schools and the entire cost of free SHS, which is made up of food, uniforms and TLRs.
The cut in the basic education Goods & Services budget will be the reason why textbooks, learning materials, capitation grant, feeding grant for special schools etc. will continue to be in deficit supply or arrears. Note: The Capitation Grant is currently in arreaars of an entire academic year.
Even more disturbing is the fact that, going by the trends in the past five years, not more than 60% of the paltry allocation may be released for execution by end of 2023.
According to the Master Card Foundation (MCF), across the African continent, the potential for a trade off between free basic education and free secondary is real, due to resource constraints. In Ghana, some 1 million children are not in basic school, mainly due to low and declining investments in public basic education.
MCF however advices that, the trade off, leading to the neglect of basic education, could be avoided if countries adopt cost efficient approaches to free secondary.
This trade off is pretty obvious in the 2023 budget.
We must improve cost efficiency under the free SHS programme. Shying away from the targeting conversation helps none; it only negatively affects the delivery of fCUBE, the largest social intervention programme in the education sector.