President-elect John Dramani Mahama has raised alarm over the funding crisis threatening Ghana’s education system, spanning from basic schools to tertiary institutions.
In a recent engagement with key education stakeholders, Mahama emphasized that the entire sector is grappling with significant financial constraints, exacerbated by the lack of consistent and dedicated funding.
He pointed out that the challenges are not limited to one level of education but affect the entire system. According to Mahama, the situation calls for a comprehensive consultative forum with all relevant stakeholders to explore solutions and establish a sustainable funding model capable of addressing both the immediate and long-term needs of the sector.
“At the last count, 1.3 million Ghanaian children at the basic education level lack basic furniture to sit and study. This is a crisis at the foundational level of our education system. While significant resources are allocated to secondary education, these funds are not coming from a dedicated source, leading to waste and inefficiency, particularly in the management of the Free SHS policy,” Mahama stated.
He further highlighted the funding shortfall at the tertiary level, noting that the GETFund, a key source of funding for infrastructure, has been heavily collateralized. As a result, 60 percent of the GETFund has already been spent, leaving only 40 percent available for infrastructure development across the entire education sector.
“This is a crisis,” Mahama said. “This is why I have suggested holding a National Education Review Conference to assess the bottlenecks and come up with actionable solutions.”
The president-elect’s call for a national dialogue underscores the urgency of addressing the funding challenges facing Ghana’s educational institutions, which could jeopardize the future of the country’s human capital development.
