Participants at plenary during the national education forum in Sunyani
Participants at the National Education Forum in Sunyani are advocating for a significant shift in the country’s Free Senior High School (SHS) policy. They proposed introducing cost-sharing at the senior high school level, as the government alone can no longer shoulder the financial burden of education financing at that level.
The participants also suggested abolishing the Free SHS Secretariat and exploring innovative ways to finance education. These alternatives include allowing schools to engage in income-generating activities, such as farming, and encouraging parents to take responsibility for their children’s education.
The forum, themed “Transforming for a Sustainable Future,” brought together diverse stakeholders, including teachers, education directors, and civil society organisations. Discussions focused on thematic areas like education financing, infrastructure, and quality education.
A major concern raised was the lack of adequate infrastructure in schools, particularly at the basic and SHS levels. Approximately 5,000 schools still operate under trees, and there is a staggering one million furniture deficit in basic and second-cycle institutions.
To address this, participants proposed involving local carpenters in furniture provision, ensuring community involvement in procurement processes for transparency, and offering tax exemptions to local carpenters as motivation.
They also proposed that technology should be inculcated in the provision of infrastructure, with solar energy and panels employed where there is no electricity for schools.
Moreover, due to digitalisation, classrooms should be digitised, where smart boards, CCTV cameras, projectors, tablets, and television sets should be provided in classrooms to ensure a holistic approach to education, they pointed out.
The Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Stephen Kwaku Owusu, assured that views gathered from the regions would inform government decisions on reforming education to improve access, quality, and financing.
Vice Chancellor of Sunyani Technical University, Eng Professor Kwadwo Adinkrah Appiah, who doubled as the chair, pleaded with the government to ensure all views sampled from the people form part of decision-making on the way forward on education improvement.
FROM Daniel Y. Dayee, Sunyani