The education system is "poor" - IBIS

Mr Lee Ocran, Minister for Education

Ibis, a non-profit, Danish non-governmental organisation operating in Ghana, has delivered a verdict on Ghana's basic education system, describing it as "poor."
Chals Wontewe, Country Director of Ibis Ghana, who delivered the verdict in Accra yesterday (Thursday), particularly chided the system for churning out pupils who lack basic and life skills and demonstrate weak literacy and numeracy competence at the Basic Education Certificate Education (BECE).

"Even though there has been a lot of improvement in enrolment and completion at the basic level, even though more girls are enrolling and completing basic school, there is clear evidence that the quality of education at the primary level still remains very poor.
"Nothing reflects the poor quality of education over the nine years of basic education than the downward trend in the percentage of students who obtain the aggregate required for admission to secondary institutions," Mr Wontewe opined.
But Hon Lee Ocran, Minister for Education, said "Quality education is steadily improving," adding, "The recent performance of our children in the national education assessment tests is ample evidence in the improvement in the pupils learning achievement and outcomes."
Both men were addressing the opening of the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC) in speeches read on their behalf by their lieutenants. The AGM, which would end today in Accra, is on the theme: "Emerging Education Needs: How Equipped is GNECC/Civil Society."
Mohammed Mahamud, National Policy Advisor, Ibis Ghana, delivered Mr Wontewe's address while Paul Kofi Krampah, Head of the Public Relations Unit of the Ministry of Education (MoE), delivered the address of Hon Ocran.
According to the Minister, improvement in quality can be attributed to several interventions put in place by government. "Over the past years, the government has put in place certain measures, aimed at promoting quality education at all levels of education in Ghana. The increase in the capitation grant by 50 per cent, the provision of free school uniforms and exercise books are some of the interventions put in place by the Ministry of Education to promote quality education.
"One of the interventions put in place to enhance the quality of education at the basic level is the introduction of the National Literacy Acceleration Programme (NALAP)."
The NALAP was first announced in September 2010, and it seeks to improve the language literacy of pupils. Its approach is to make pupils in the basic schools literate in their mother tongues to prepare them for a smooth transition to English and any other languages.
According to the Ministry, the local languages to be used for the project are Asante Twi, Akuapem Twi, Fante, Nzema, Ga, Dangme, Ewe, Dagbani, Dagaare, Gonja and Kasem.
Mr Wontewe has meanwhile received support from Abena Adubea Acheampong, Country Co-ordinator, World University Service of Canada (WUSC), who agrees that current standards leave much to be desired.
Going forward, she says: "Although, Ghana has not been able to achieve Universal Basic Education at the basic level, I think that the discussion around enrolment and retention at this critical level must also include ensuring quality basic Education.
"It is not enough to ensure that every child of school going age attends and complete basic school, we must also ensure that they are achieving and that they achieve numeracy, literacy and critical skills that will enable them to be useful to themselves, their families, communities and the country as a whole," she pointed out in an interview with Public Agenda on the sidelines of the AGM.
She continued: "The debate is not and must not be quantity verses quality, it should be quality and quantity and all stakeholders including civil society must ensure that this is achieved for every Ghanaian child (boy, girl, physically challenged, poor and rich) to reach their full potential."
She was echoing Mr Wontewe's call early on for civil society to rescue the situation by backing strong advocacy with workable and strong policy proposals. He urged: "With abundant evidence on the continuing poor state of basic education in the country, there is not only a strong need, but indeed, an urgent need for civil society to lead a demand for quality education at this primary, critical level.
"Beyond making a demand, civil society should be offering options for making this happen. And we have the information to show that our basic education is weak and we have the information to propose workable options. Not doing this makes us part of the problem."
Limited
In Mr Wontewe's statement, he cited reports of the Ghana Education Service (GES), a report on a study on rural/urban schools conducted for GNECC in 2008 and a report on the capitation grant conducted by SEND Foundation to back Ibis' view on the basic education system. "Our educational system is limited in the development of the potential of learners. At the basic level, the system equips learners mostly with reading, writing skills, some knowledge of Maths, Science and Arts. It is poor in equipping learners with basic and life skills, a very important function of education."
He referenced a GES report, saying "about 64% of Junior High School [JHS] pupils cannot read. So if our educational system does not equip pupils with basic and life skills, and if they are not even able to read in JHS nor make good enough passes to go on to Senior High School [SHS], what does our basic educational system then give to our children? How is the right of these children to education being achieved?"
Turning to BECE outcomes, he reminded the GNECC fraternity that in 2010, only 49% of candidates who sat the BECE had aggregates that qualified them for places in SHS. "In 2011, the percentage declined to 46%, with the 176,128 candidates who passed being less than the total number of places available in Senior High Schools."

This story was originally written for, and published by my newspaper, Public Agenda. Access at :http://ghanaweb.com/public_agenda/article.php?ID=17037