Plea for African leaders to increase child education investment

African leaders have been urged to increase investment in child education in a bid to enhance children’s access to quality education.

The plea was made by Plan Ghana, an international child-centred community development organization. Country Director Mr Prem Shukla said investment in education by most leaders and duty bearers, was inadequate to enable children to access quality education.

Mr Shukla made the call in a speech delivered on his behalf by Mr George Yorke, Sponsorship Manager of Plan Ghana, during the Day of the Africa Child in Accra, on the theme “A child friendly, quality, free and compulsory education for all children in Africa.”

The Country Director said it was about time measures were put in place to eliminate the traditional practices and behaviours, which tended to exclude some groups of children from education, especially children with disabilities and pregnant girls.

He said everyone must strive for inclusiveness of all children, irrespective of their situation, and he noted the theme was very appropriate, as it underscored the critical need for government and duty bearers to increase their educational provisions to improve on the quality of education, as well as to ensure inclusiveness.

Mr Shukla said: “Plan Ghana wishes to use this platform to call upon the Government, civil society and the media to collaborate in mobilizing resources towards the realization of all children’s rights to education.

“We believe that ensuring quality, free and compulsory education in Ghana is the responsibility of all. Every government agency and institution as well as organizations and individuals have to contribute to the educational agenda.”

He added that since 1999 Plan Ghana has awarded scholarships with an annual budget of about GH¢ 500,000.00 for a minimum of 1,000 students per year and still continuing.

He said Plan’s ‘Because I Am a Girl (BIAAG) campaign’ forms part of Plan International’s unique global moments aimed at garnering support for investment into girl child education.

Governments will meet at the Global Partnership for Education conference in Brussels, in July this year, to declare their commitments to funding education.

Mr Shukla said Plan International, together with the scores of marginalized children in Ghana, were therefore calling on government and all duty bearers to stand up and commit the necessary resources to ensure all children have access to basic education.

He said: “We are optimistic that in unity lies strength and with our concerted efforts as Africans, we can make the world a much better place for children by investing in their education”.

The Day of the African Child is being commemorated by the African Union to recall the June 16, 1976 uprising in Soweto, when a protest by school children in South Africa against apartheid-inspired education resulted in the brutal and deadly repression of thousands of these unarmed young protesters by police officials.

The Day was marked in Ghana under the auspices of Plan Ghana, United Nations International Children's Fund and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection.