The Honorable Alex Kyeremeh, the former Deputy Minister of Education under the Mahama administration, has criticised the current Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, for what he perceives as inadequate progress and mismanagement in Ghana’s education system.
This exchange comes in the wake of contrasting views regarding the state of educational infrastructure, particularly the implementation of the Community Senior High School project.
The former Member of Parliament for Techiman North in a statement indicated that the inception of the Community Senior High School Concept in 2012 aimed at addressing the surging demand for secondary education, driven by population increase and parental interest in education in the country.
According to him, the idea of the Mahama and the National Democratic Congress administration was to establish new schools closer to communities with high numbers of Junior High School students, making education more accessible and fostering community participation.
“The demand for space in SHS was becoming a big challenge due to inadequate infrastructure. So, in 2012, after a series of stakeholder meetings, the Community Senior High School Concept came up. The idea was to establish new schools with first-class facilities like what you find in the E Blocks, closer to some communities with high numbers of JHS students. Some of these communities were in urban, peri-urban and some deprived communities across the country”.
Honorable Alex Kyeremeh
The former deputy minister of Education further asserted that the World Bank supported the Community Senior High School initiative, endorsing the model for replication in other countries.
He emphasized that the Ministry of Education and Ghana Education Service identified districts and municipalities in need of additional Senior High School (SHS) facilities, while the Assemblies were tasked with identifying suitable communities and engaging Traditional Authorities for land acquisition.
However, Honorable Kyeremeh claimed that after seven years, facilities such as dormitories, dining halls, and staff bungalows in some Community Senior High Schools failed to materialize, despite adequate funding from the Ghana Education Trust Fund (Getfund) and a $156 million facility from the World Bank.
“For instance, Krobo Community School in Techiman North in Bono East got approval for the construction of 2 number dormitory blocks and dining hall and a kitchen. Funding for the Community Secondary Schools project was the Getfund and a $ 156m facility from the World Bank, so it is not true there were no funds for the project”.
Honorable Alex Kyeremeh
NPP Administration Accused Of Mismanaging Ghana’s Education
Furthermore, the Honorable Alex Kyeremah further accused the New Patriotic Party administration of failing to effectively utilize the funds allocated for the projects which has led to an unfulfilled promise of improved infrastructure in the education sector.
The former Deputy Minister of Education also asserted that, unlike the New Patriotic Party administration that has deliberately refused to put money into education despite unprecedented revenues it has received over the years, the National Democratic Congress, on the other hand, made a huge investment in education in Ghana by committing more than 20% of annual revenue to the education sector yearly while in office.
The Honorable Alex Kyeremeh strongly posited that despite the United Nations requirement by countries to spend at least 20 per cent of its total revenues on education, the New Patriotic Party administration under President Akufo-Addo except for the year 2017 has failed to comply with such requirement.
According to him, the government’s budget for education for the year 2024 is only 14%, the reason it is unable to undertake any meaningful infrastructure projects in education.
Moreover, the Honorable Alex Kyeremeh accused Dr. Adutwum of overseeing Basic Schools without textbooks for the past four years, schools under trees, and classrooms lacking tables and chairs.
He also raised concerns about teacher shortages, with over 40,000 teachers leaving the country in the past three years, while only 16,000 replacements were made by the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service.
“The Minister must be told now that education in Ghana is not only SHS. Even the Free SHS is seriously in trouble because of a lack of infrastructure and intermittent supply of food due to inadequate funds. Since 2016, when the last textbooks for SHS were procured, by NDC, not a single textbook has been added. Looking at the numbers, many students are without textbooks.
“This is the same minister who can contract people to print past questions and answers annually but not textbooks. As reported last week in the media, more than 136,000 first-year students have not reported to school. Is the Minister aware? Students spend more time at home because of unpopular double tracks. What’s going on? Tertiary institutions also have their fair share of the problems. Senior staff of our universities are on strike”
Honorable Alex Kyeremeh
The Honorable Alex Kyeremeh concluded by expressing concerns about the rampant changes in Ghana’s education calendar resulting from the mismanagement of the education sector by the current administration.
He therefore admonished the Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum to acknowledge the challenges facing the country’s education sector and work in collaboration with all stakeholders to address them to avert future repercussions on the human resources of the country.
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