GNECC bemoans slow rate of education decentralization implementation

The Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC) has bemoaned the snail-pace implementation of the Ghana Education Decentralisation Reforms, and therefore made far-reaching recommendations to address the challenges besetting the process.

In a study report funded by Star-Ghana, Scoping Study on the Implementation of Ghana's Education Decentralisation Reforms, GNECC recommends, among other things, that the process for the constitutional amendment and passage of the consolidated Local Government Bill should be expedited to give further impetus to the education decentralisation.

It also proposes that the draft consolidated Local Government Bill be shared with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), District Assemblies and the Ghana Education Service (GES) for their inputs. According to the Coalition “that is very important as there is no indication that the above mentioned bodies are even aware of the current zero draft of the bill.”

Cabinet decision to decentralise the GES, the Coalition says, should be expedited to provide District Assemblies with the necessary technical support to create and manage databases which inform planning and budgeting.

The Scoping Study was launched last week in Accra by GNECC as part of The Education Decentralisation Roadmap Campaign Project. It seeks to provide a situational update of the status of key outstanding issues in education decentralisation as identified in major policy initiatives and legislations to decentralise the GES to the district level.

It is also expected to contribute to shaping an advocacy strategy to pursue a full education decentralisation agenda, otherwise known as devolution of education management.

Similarly, it seeks to inform civil society and the public on the progress towards achieving full decentralisation of basic education and to mobilise civil society's support to engage participants in the processes of education decentralisation.

During the launch of the report, Mr Bright Appiah, Executive Director of Child's Right International, a member organisation of GNECC, indicated that it was important to highlight the impediments to the implementation of the laws on decentralisation education in Ghana.

GNECC observes that existing education management system characterised by long chain of bureaucratic procedures was inherited from the colonial masters and has contributed to a huge laxity in the supervision of education service delivery over the years.

It adds that the multiple-fold growth of the country's population and its resultant increase in the number of local government units or districts have compounded the inherited administrative bureaucracy in the sector. For this reason, the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana has in it numerous provisions advocated for a decentralised administrative system.

For instance, the local government acts, Act 462 and 656 together with Legislative Instrument (LI) 1961 all provide for a decentralised basic education. Additionally, the Ghana Education Service Act, Act 506 and the Education Service Act, Act 778 provide for decentralized education.