Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare has observed that nearly 80% of educational institutions described as ‘schools under trees’ are in the northern parts of the country.
Discussing the gaps in the education sector on Morning Starr with Naa Dedei Tettey, Mr. Asare said the challenges disproportionately affected communities in those areas.
“About 80% of the 5,400 schools under trees are in the geographical northern regions. When you hear about one million desks required, more than 80% of that deficit is in the geographical north, and then Western North and Oti Regions.
“When you hear about teacher deficits, up until last year, in Central Gonja alone, about 80% of teachers needed in primary and kindergarten were not available,” Mr. Asare noted.
He said the disparity in performance could be seen at the Basic Education Certificate Education (BECE) where some of these deprived communities record pass rates well below the national average.
“Every indicator of access and quality, the gap between the pass rate at the national level and then in the deprived districts, it’s 20% off the points.
“So the pass rate in BECE is 80% nationally. It’s 60% there. So that’s a huge gap,” he said.
On the campaign trail, the National Democratic Congress made the point that the previous government’s flagship Free Senior High School policy had drained funding from critically needed areas in the education sector.
Undoubtedly, access and quality to basic education will be amongst the topical issues on Mr. Haruna Iddrisu’s desk when he takes in the Ministry of Education.
