Low investment in education is responsible for falling educational standards in Ghana – Kofi Asare
Governments’ failure to heavily invest in the education sector according to the Executive director of Africa Education Watch Kofi Asare, is a contributing factor to Ghana’s falling education standards.
He bemoaned how the lack of investment in the education sector has stifled various basic schools of the resources needed to provide quality education.
“There are no resources to provide quality education. Once you are constricting or restricting the disbursement of resources to build infrastructure then it means overtime you are denying them of resources,” Mr Asare lamented.
Supporting his claim with figures, Mr Asare revealed that the government had since 2012 drastically reduced its investment in the education sector.
“In 2012, Ghana was committing 7.6 per cent of its GDP to education. As we speak we are committing 4.6 per cent of our GDP. It means we have reduced the percentage allocation of education expenditure to GDP by about 3 percentage points between 2012 and today.”
“The country is investing less in education and at the same time, out of the percentage that goes into education, basic education share has also been shrinking over time. This is why we are seeing what we are seeing,” he explained.
In 2021, some education campaigners under the umbrella name #EduSpikeGh expressed worry over the worsening educational standards.
The organization consisting of different educational think tanks had said the lack of investments in the public basic school architecture, coupled with the proliferation of substandard private schools continues to have a negative toll on teaching and learning outcomes in the country.
The challenge is still evident, as several reports have highlighted the resource constraints confronting various basic schools.
