Executive director of the Institute for Education Studies (IFEST), Dr Peter Anti, has decried the state of Ghana’s education sector, insisting that it is not designed for the vulnerable students.

Reacting to the impact of the Akosombo spillage on school activities in the Volta region, Dr Anti indicated that it’s unfortunate that these communities have to suffer such fate.

He explained that due to the gravity of the impact of spillage, it’s quite “disheartening” for the country to experience such an artificial disaster, which could have been avoided.

Furthermore, Dr Anti stated that owing to the impact of the spillage, there’s no way education can continue in any of the areas.

“I see houses submerge in water, so there’s no way anybody can move to school. So, what normally is done is that in countries where there are planned systems, there’s a quick deploy of emergency education in these areas, and unfortunately, we do not have that in our country.
“Our educational system is not designed to support the vulnerable and the marginalized…”
Dr Peter Anti

Justifying his stance, Dr Anti highlighted that for some months, Bawku had the experience where because of war, schools were closed down, with teachers leaving town. With this, he revealed that until the issue was diffused, education activities were not restored.

“So, in emergency situations there are no plans in place to ensure that we will be able to deploy education to the marginalized and vulnerable in these places and that is what we are experiencing in Volta region again, just as happened in Bawku. So, the Ghana Education Service can show goodwill, the minister of education might talk about what they want to do.
“But on paper, there’s no plan designed that in case of emergencies like this in areas, these are the steps that will be taken by the minister of education, Ghana Education Service and various agencies to ensure that we will continue to deploy education to these people…”
Dr Peter Anti

As part of efforts to restore educational activities, Dr Anti advocated for mobile vans system from the Ghana Library Service to be deployed to the region. Also, he stated that by this time, the National Service Secretariat should have deployed some personnel to the affected areas where these people are being housed to ensure that they offer some kind of tutorial or academic work for the kids.

AK dam — Communities submerged following spillage of Akosombo dam.

“These are what we do in emergency cases, unfortunately, we don’t have that plan. All that you will hear and all that you will see will be just talk, promises and that is it.”
Dr Peter Anti

Prioritization of education sector

Meanwhile, the IFEST executive director expressed disappointment in the short supply of donations to aid learning despite relief items from various groups and institutions.

He asserted that government should have taken a cue from the days of COVID where institutions and stakeholders within the education sector learnt a lot about how to deploy education in situations where it cannot have face to face contact with students.

“We just came out of COVID where we have gathered experience in how to deploy to ensure that no child will be left behind in terms of the delivery of education. So, in such situations, you have to also prioritize the area and provide the needed resources to ensure that you are able to deliver education to them…”
Dr Peter Anti

Moreover, Dr Anti underscored the need for government to prioritize education. He noted that the case of affected communities is something urgent which needs to be attended to.

“You block all other things you are doing and focus to ensure that education is delivered to these people including giving them the needed resources that they need to be able to do that. You block all avenues in terms of where you deploy your resources and ensure that your teachers are safe, and they will be in a position psychologically and mentally to also assist the kids in the delivery of education. That is not what is being done, we’re still stuck in our old ways of doing things…”
Dr Peter Anti