Govt’s quality accessible, education on course

President John Mahama's agenda for quality, accessible, equitable and affordable education remains on course, Mr Seth Terkper, Minister of Finance, has said.

Addressing Parliament on the 2015 Budget statement on Wednesday, Mr Terkper said the pledge of the President during the 2014 State of the Nation Address to the House to implement progressively free secondary education beginning 2015 was ready to take off at the second cycle level.

He explained that the agreed roadmap beginning with day students had been adequately catered for in the 2015 budget.

The theme for the 2015 budget statement was: "Transformational Agenda: Securing the Bright Medium Term Prospects of the Economy".

He said the government’s pledge to construct additional 200 senior high schools by 2016 is very much on course and so far the first 50 are at various stages of completion.

“This budget has also made provision for the next 50. Under the World Bank supported Secondary Education Improvement Project (SEIP), an additional 23 new senior high schools are being constructed.

This means therefore that so far funding has been secured for 123 out of the promised 200 senior high schools.

Mr Terkper said government remains confident of meeting it target by 2016 in line with it prudent fiscal policy that all major capital projects must be fully funded before they are started.

He said under the SEIP, 125 existing senior high schools are receiving facilities upgrade, 125 Heads, leadership and management training, with additional 6,500 Science, Mathematics and ICT teacher receiving capacity building whiles scholarships are being provided for 10,000 students for the three- year senior high school duration for which 60 per cent are girls.

He announced that Cabinet had also approved the draft bill for the public university to be sited in the Eastern Region in line with the pledge to establish at least one public university in each of the 10 regions.

“It is gladdening to note that this particular session of Parliament will be considering the Eastern University Bill.

I am happy in this light to report tremendous progress in the new public universities in the Brong Ahafo and Volta Regions which this august House assisted us to establish.”

He said work is ongoing on the conversion of polytechnics into technical universities while a roadmap had been agreed by cabinet.

In line with efforts to rebrand technical and vocational education to make it more attractive to the youth and also to support President Mahama's Made in Ghana Initiative, the Skills Development Fund intervention under the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training had so far disbursed GH? 136.5 million to 510 grantees.

“At the basic level, as we approach the 2015 target year for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS), we can all be pleased that Ghana has achieved MDG 2 on universal basic education.

In order to avoid complacency and in line with our own FCUBE programme, Government will continue to implement interventions aimed at retaining our children in school such as eliminating schools under trees, free uniforms, free text books, capitation grant, expanded school feeding programme, BECE (basic education certificate examination) subsidies and redeployment of teachers.”

He said government would continue to carry out effective redeployment of teachers and train more teachers in line with the new reforms in the sector that led to an increase of teacher trainees in the colleges of education by an unprecedented 63 per cent.

Teacher absenteeism which had been brought down from 27 per cent to 11 per cent would be reduced further by the new management practices that have embarked upon, the Minister said.