Accra, April 27, GNA – The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Parliamentary Minority has urged the Education Minister to desist from the rebranding of public basic schools and channel the resources into tackling critical challenges facing basic education in the country.
“How can the Minister, at this time of economic crisis in Ghana, be thinking of wasting public resources to repaint public schools in Blue and White colours; and introduce wearing of Blue and White uniforms in public schools, when one million plus public basic school pupils have no access to furniture?”
Dr Clement Abas Apaak, the Deputy Ranking Member of Parliament Education Committee and NDC Member of Parliament (MP) for Bulsa South, asked the question in a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency on Saturday.
“Has the Minister (Education) forgotten, what he told Parliament, during his last visit? In his report to Parliament, it has been captured that only 65 per cent of textbooks have been supplied thus far.”
“May I remind him that capitation grants are still in arrears for the equivalent of eight terms?”
He questioned how rebranding could be a priority in the face of these challenges facing public education in Ghana.
Giving a detailed list of shared challenges affecting teaching and learning in public basic schools in Ghana, Dr Apaak mentioned delay in releases of Capitation Grant (10 cedis per head per annum), which was in arrears for eight tranches (equivalent to eight Terms).
Others are infrastructural deficit, especially poor toilet facilities; lack of textbooks from kindergarten to junior high school, more than three years after the introduction of reforms; and no sample questions for 2024 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) Candidates (the first batch of the New Reform).
The rest are lack of furniture for both teachers and students; lack of security personnel to protect properties of schools, leading to rampant theft cases, unpaid Utility bills (electricity and water) leading to disconnections, while schools in urban areas faced the uphill task of disposing refuse, because of the lack of money to pay waste collectors.
He said basic school administrators were struggling to manage the affairs of schools, because of inadequate funding, neglect and delay in the releases of the capitation grants.
Dr Apaak said those were issues the Education Minister should be worried about, not the colours of school blocks and school uniforms.
He said spending public time and resources painting schools in blue and white, and introducing blue and white uniforms were clearly misplaced priorities.
“We call on Ghanaians to join us in resisting this needless initiative in the collective interest of the State of the Republic of Ghana,” he said.
“If the Ministry of Education has funds, advisedly, those funds should go to address the long list of challenges narrated by Heads of public basic schools.”
GNA