Speakers at a STAR-Ghana Foundation forum have called for increased investments in education to improve access to education for all.
The call is coming on the back of concerns that poverty and cost-related (hidden) challenges remain foremost on the list of barriers that confront girls’ continuous access to education.
Therefore, the unique needs of girls should be factored into education financing to enable girls to enroll, remain and complete their education.
The forum was held under the theme ‘Increasing Inclusive Access to Continuous Quality Education for Girls.”
Dr Ernestina Tetteh (left), Projects Manager at STAR-Ghana Foundation, Kofi Asare, Executive Director, Africa Education Watch during the forum
In a scoping review of the challenges to girls’ education, Projects Manager at STAR-Ghana Foundation, Dr Ernestina Tetteh, cited as an example, the public outcry over prospectus for senior high school (SHS) education indicates that the Free SHS policy is not as inclusive as purposed to be.
“If accompanying FSHS is an estimated cost of GH₵3000 to GH₵4000 to buy prospectus then some people will still be left out. So, those costs that we see behind ‘free’ does not make it inclusive and ensure that girls also have access to, remain and complete education,” she said.
According to Dr Tetteh, there is low budgetary allocation for specific interventions that benefit girls’ education.
For instance, until the year 2020, complementary basic education, an important strategy in reducing the growing number of ‘out of school children’ especially girls, was solely donor funded. In the 2023 budget, an allocation of GH₵2.1 million has been made for complimentary education, while the Ministry of Education’s Strategic Plan 2018-2030 commits only 1 percent (%) of its Basic Education Budget to supporting Complementary Basic Education programme.
Some participants in the forum
Budget execution
The Executive Director, Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare, noted the financing architecture of Ghana’s education system does not prioritise basic education but secondary education.
This, he said gives girls at the secondary level more support to remain in school and complete than at the basic level.
“If you look at the envelope of the Ministry of Education, there is compensation (salaries), and discretionary budget that is unrestricted and could be touched. An analysis of the education budget shows that only about five per cent (5%) of the discretionary budget comes to basic education, it was previously 19 percent, and it has been coming down yearly.”
He added that the way public resources are deployed to finance education determines the extent to which the delivery of education will be possible and will include the needs of the vulnerable.
“Until we can pursue government to prioritise gender-responsive budgeting, we will talk and talk and will not see any improvement,” he said.
The Head of Programmes at STAR-Ghana Foundation, Eunice Racheal Agbenyadzi, beyond advocating for increased budget allocation, civil society should also be interested in actual disbursement, which has shown to be poor (more than 10% variance between allocated and disbursed).
“We need collective influencing on education budget to see increases in the areas of capital expenditure, and goods and services, but also to follow disbursements. We need stronger coalition as civil society to demand this,” she said.
Some participants in the forum
The forum
The forum was organised by STAR-Ghana Foundation and partners under the Gender Rights and Empowerment Programme (G-REP) with funding from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) of the UK government.
The FCDO on G-REP seeks to contribute to increasing girls’ education, promoting women’s voices, political participation and addressing issues of violence and abuse against women and girls.