By Elizabeth Larkwor Baah
Tema, Nov. 19, GNA-The Campaign Against Privatization and Commercialization of Education (CAPCOE) has lauded the government’s 2026 budgetary allocation to the education sector, describing it as a constructive step towards strengthening teacher preparation and learning outcomes.
Mr Richard Kwashie Kovey, CAPCOE Convener, reacting to the budget statement, said even though it was in the right direction, meaningful progress would, however, depend on parallel improvements in the working conditions of teachers, urging policymakers to address long-standing challenges related to infrastructure and professional support.
Mr Kovey told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview that teachers, being public sector workers, would see a meagre nine percent salary adjustment in 2026, saying that “in nominal terms, a teacher or any other public sector worker whose gross salary is GHs 3000.00 will see, before tax and other mandatory deductions, an increase of GHs 270.00, and senior staff who earn around GHs 7000.00 will also experience an increase, before tax and other mandatory deductions, of GHs 630.00.”
He added that teachers in general do not get compensation for extra services rendered like other public sector workers do, noting that conditions of service of teachers do not factor allowances including accommodation, extra duty or extra time, risk, utility, dress, transport or fuel; hence, all these components were financed from their basic salary.
He said currently, the average cost of a single room with a porch in the cities was around GHs 400.00, and the inability of the state to factor these into the wages of teachers would push teachers into expensive loans and loss of focus, hence learning poverty.
Mr Kovey, however, commended the government for allocating GHs 33.3 billion from the consolidated fund with an additional GHs 9.9 billion from the GETFund, making a total allocation of GHs 43.2 billion to the education sector.
He urged the government to find another source of funding for the no-fee stress for level 100 tertiary students’ policy while freezing GETFund allocation for the Students’ Loan Trust Fund and scholarships and committing fully GETFund accruals to address infrastructure needs of schools at all levels.
“For the first time in well over ten years, the government committed an amount of GHs 2 billion for the construction of 200 new schools made up of 200 KG blocks, 200 Primary six-unit classroom blocks and 200 new three-unit junior school blocks, totalling 600 new basic schools with a focus on deprived communities that lack public schools,” he stated.
The CAPCOE convener said currently, the figure for schools under trees and dilapidated structures across the country stood at 5400, noting that there were lots of schools in the urban and peri-urban areas in the Greater Accra Region running shift systems.
He suggested that the 2027 budget should focus on expanding infrastructure at the basic and secondary levels to eliminate schools under trees within a short to medium term and to end the shift and double track systems.
GNA
Edited by Laudia Sawer/Lydia Kukua Asamoah