President-elect John Dramani Mahama has expressed his deep concern regarding the funding crisis that is currently impacting Ghana’s education sector, spanning from basic schools to tertiary institutions.
During a meeting with key stakeholders in education, the president-elect emphasized that the entire educational framework is grappling with significant financial limitations due to the lack of consistent and dedicated funding sources.
Mahama underscored the necessity for a consultative forum that includes all pertinent stakeholders to investigate potential solutions to the funding issues, aiming to create a sustainable funding model that can meet both the immediate and long-term requirements of the sector.
“Currently, 1.3 million Ghanaian children at the basic education level lack essential furniture for studying. This indicates a crisis at the foundational level. Although substantial funds are allocated to secondary education, they do not originate from a dedicated source, leading to considerable waste and inefficiency in the expenditure related to the Free Senior High School initiative.
“Simultaneously, tertiary education is also facing a funding shortfall, as the GETFund, which was once a reliable funding source, has been collateralized. Consequently, 60 percent of the GETFund has already been utilized, leaving only 40 percent available to support infrastructure across the entire educational spectrum.
“This situation constitutes a crisis, which is why I propose convening a National Education Review Conference to identify and address the existing bottlenecks.”
