Basic school education in Ghana needs policy attention - IMANI Africa

Research Consultant at IMANI Africa Erzuah Nvidah, has raised concerns about the need to critically assess policies that guide the country’s basic education.

This challenge, he believes will transform Ghana’s education system when addressed.

Speaking on Joy FM Morning show, the research consultant lamented on the dire issues faced by public basic schools and called for a relook of the education system at the basic level.

“The biggest challenge faced by the country since independence has been a human resource challenge, that is developing a highly skilled workforce to manage critical areas of the national economy. This makes Political parties' manifesto on education very important since it dictates the educational policy direction of the next government.”

Mr. Nvidah called attention to the poor-quality outcomes in education at the basic level as evidenced by test results in National Education Assessment (NEA) and Basic Education Certificate Exams (BECE).

“The challenge we have with basic education is even more complex when you take note of the huge out-of-school population and the serious learning gap we have - children can be expected to complete 11.6 years of schooling by age 18, but when this is adjusted for quality of learning, we have a learning gap of 5.9 years. These are alarming trends we need to arrest as a country”, he noted.

The research consultant at IMANI Africa added that the huge resource allocation and policy attention away from basic education to secondary education could worsen the situation at the basic level even further.

He also advocated for a shift of the policy conversation from mere inputs in education to outputs and quality outcomes.

Commenting on the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress(NDC) manifestos, he commended efforts of the two political parties to have given the education sector adequate attention in successive elections describing it as a good development.

Beyond the manifesto promises being in line with the nation's broad strategic goals, he noted that the plegdes were responsive to emerging national debates in education such as legal education reform and digital learning investments.