Africa Education Watch, an education think-tank, in its new year message has indicated, that Ghana’s 3-year IMF programme will lead to severe expenditure cuts which will derail basic education development in Ghana.
Per the assessments made by EduWatch, the IMF programme coupled with government expenditure choices and basic education funding challenges that continue to confront education will lead to low education financing which will further slow down the attainment of targets for education, especially at the basic school level.
Below is the full message from the Africa Education Watch
EDUWATCH NEW YEAR MESSAGE – GHANA
2023 is the beginning of a 3-year IMF programme occasioned by severe expenditure cuts that threaten to derail the attainment & sustenance of key equitable access, transition, & completion targets in the educ sector, especially at the basic level.
In such difficult periods of resource deficits, spending efficiency and inclusive governance are strategies that must be accorded utmost priority by the Ministry of Education.
The immediate manifestation of the IMF expenditure cuts is seen in a record (12.9%) lowest proportion of the national budget allocation to education, the first in about two decades, far below the 15% minimum international benchmark for education financing.
The already underfunded basic educ budget for Goods & Services, from where Teaching & Learning Resources are financed has been further cut by 40%. This, coupled with a freeze on teacher recruitment will leave thousands of classrooms without trained teachers, especially in deprived areas.
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In such difficult periods of resource deficits, spending efficiency and inclusive governance are strategies that must be accorded utmost priority by the Ministry of Education.
To optimize spending efficiency, the Ministry of Education must normalize competitive procurement, strengthen value for money, prioritize pro-poor spending through targeting of social interventions, and redistribute surplus teachers to schools with teacher deficits.
To improve inclusive resource governance & augment the resource gap, the Ministry of Education must adopt an equitable framework for formalizing already existing opportunities for parental contribution to financing basic and secondary education.
Both approaches cannot be effective without a demonstrable political will hinged on transparency, accountability, and inclusive governance.
The Ghana Education News Editorial Team is a specialized collective of education researchers, journalists, and policy analysts dedicated to providing high-fidelity reporting on the Ghanaian academic landscape. Serving as a primary bridge between governing bodies—including the Ghana Education Service (GES) and WAEC—and the public, the team leverages over a decade of combined experience to serve students, parents, and educators nationwide.
Lead Architect & Editor-in-Chief
The team is led by Wisdom Kojo Eli Hammond, a distinguished Ghanaian Edu-Tech Entrepreneur, AI Solutions Developer, and Product Architect with over 25 years of cross-disciplinary experience in education, finance, and digital media. Wisdom is the visionary force behind SkulManager, Ghana’s premier school management ecosystem, and the Lead Consultant at Education-News Consult.
A self-taught innovator, professional Web Designer, and regular columnist on GhanaWeb, Wisdom engineered SkulManager.com as the only platform strictly tailored to the GES Curriculum. His technical leadership has redefined educational assessment through a Hybrid Marking Ecosystem, pioneering the BECE and WASSCE Home Mock services—a unique fusion of WAEC-trained human examiners and advanced AI marking engines operational since 2022.
Wisdom’s 360-degree view of institutional challenges is grounded in his tenure as College President and Lecturer at Pinnacle College (Achimota), as well as his background as a school administrator and accountant. He is a dedicated lifelong learner currently advancing his studies at the Accra Institute of Technology (AIT), with academic ties to the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA).
An accomplished author, his works include Returnees of the Dead Forest (UK Published), Simplified Beacon of Light (850+ Q&A), and The Leader in Me. A foundational pillar of the award-winning NGO Human Rights Reporters Ghana (HRRG), Wisdom is committed to building intelligent systems that solve societal problems and prepare the next generation of Ghanaian students for a digital future.
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