The Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch) has expressed the urgency for government to upscale and sustain education spending to 6% of GDP.

According to Eduwatch, it is crucial for government to make such investment in the education sector. It noted that government must as well commit at least 50% of education expenditure to basic education by increasing its allocation to basic, with 20% committed to capital expenditure.

The education think tank noted that this will help reduce the infrastructure gap, enhance access and reduce dropouts.

“Government must upscale and sustain education spending to 6% of GDP and at least 20% of total government expenditure. Government must explore cost-efficient education financing options through enhanced domestic resource mobilization. The over-reliance on bonds is expensive and unsustainable.”
Eduwatch

As part of Eduwatch’s recommendation in its October ‘Education Financing Brief’ launched today, October 18, 2022, Eduwatch underscored the need for government’s effort in building tax infrastructure and broadening the tax base to support fairer property taxes, fight tax evasion and implement the Tax Exemptions Bill already passed by Parliament.

This, it explained, would increase the fiscal space to allow increased investment in the education sector.

“Government should leverage on existing GSS data on household expenditure to develop a targeting system that enables the average to rich households to pay for feeding in SHS, while the poorest receive even more support to remove existing financial barriers in funding their school prospectus.”
Eduwatch

Global financing benchmark in education

Ghana, Eduwatch stated, has met global financing benchmarks in education, thereby impacting on access to basic and secondary education. However, as the economy expands, it explained that there is a downward trend in education’s share of public expenditure and the GDP, raising issues about the sustainability of key basic and secondary education interventions critical to meeting the SDGs by 2030.

Capped in its recommendations, Eduwatch noted that the Office of the President should set and enforce competitive procurement benchmarks for the Ministry of Education and its agencies. It urged the Ministry to promote efficiency in education spending within the various agencies and the Ministry itself.

“This can be achieved by adopting a competitive procurement and value for money culture in all its spending. The Ministry of Education must commit to open procurement and budgetary transparency in education spending, while enforcing public financial management laws and regulations, and enhancing internal audit capacity.”
Eduwatch

Elaborating on GETFund, Eduwatch emphasized that the Minister of Finance must take steps to uncap the GETFund and ensure prompt release of the Fund within the financial year of approval. It further called on the Minister of Education to prioritize basic education infrastructure in its proposals for GETFund allocation.

“This is necessary in reducing dropouts at the basic level, there by enhancing opportunities for access to secondary education by the poor. Parliament must strengthen its oversight on the administration of the GETFund by insisting the Minister of Finance uncaps GETFund before approving the 2023 distribution formula.”
Eduwatch

Eduwatch in its brief noted that there are significant inequities in education spending in basic and secondary education and amongst the poorest and richest households. As such, it is important to improve equitable spending of education expenditure that prioritizes the needs of the poorest household.

Delayed disbursement of funds, it highlighted, continues to affect the quality of skills training and cost of education infrastructure. In lieu of this, improvements in disbursement mechanisms are necessary for cost efficiency and effectiveness.