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Mahama to make tertiary education free… Er, sorta
Much ado has been made over remarks President Mahama delivered at the University of Cape Coast this week. Headlines may lead you, like me, to believe that President Mahama had taken a monumental step towards accessible education. Which is why it’s important to read more than headlines… the President’s remarks, while potentially promising, amount to pretty much no new developments. “I wish to assure you that as Ghana’s GDP continues to grow and as we continue to make wealth, we will continue to make tertiary education progressively free so that you pay less fees.” Read: As Ghana continues to develop, education will be further subsidized. Ideally, Mahama’s actions will expose me as a cynic; this is an instance where I’d happily be left with my foot in my mouth. But, if history serves as an indicator (e.g., the government’s inability to implement a similar SHS promise made in 2012, albeit under a different ruling party), it would be useful not to put too much stock in a government promise.
And so agrees the Ranking Member of the Committee on Education, Professor Dominic Fobih, who responded to the President’s comments by opining that Mahama was either daydreaming or posturing for reelection votes. The former Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Michael Nsowah, among several other high-profile education names, was sure to advise parents not to rely on the free tertiary education promise.
GES drop off education materials and a hint
The GES provided Ashanti Region schools with a substantial load of materials, including nearly 30,000 teacher notebooks, over 53,000 attendance registers, 343,000 boxes of chalk, and 2,100 mono desks. GES Director-General, Jacob Kor played deliveryman in what appeared to be a not-so-subtle hint for teachers to start doing a better job. In his speech, Kor urged teachers to avoid “absenteeism, lateness, and anything unethical that could negatively affect classroom performance.”
UNESCO: Ghana, you’ve got a long way to go
A recent UNESCO report on education claims that Ghana is 100 years away from meeting its global education commitment. Additionally, and also not particularly positive, the report states that Ghanaian education needs a “major transformation.” A bright spot, if you’d like to call it that, is that Ghana is a bit ahead of the rest of sub-Saharan Africa in terms of its expected timeline for literacy at the universal primary, universal lower secondary, and universal upper secondary levels. A reason for optimism: 40 per cent of those with primary education or less are in working poverty, meaning that improving education could help alleviate this problem.
MOE announces big staffing news
The MOE issued a press release stating that “postings for all 16,432 newly trained teachers are ready.” Notable is the use of the word “all.” Recently, fears had grown among some that the education sector would not be able to employ all of these newly-minted teachers due to the “particularly high numbers of [teacher] graduates as a result of the Government’s decision to abolish the quota system.” As it seems, the MOE has found a way to staff the newly trained, which certainly will provoke some questions over the efficiency, or lack thereof, in how teachers are staffed.
Tigo hits impressive milestone
Only a year after its launch, the Tigo E-library on Wheels has benefited over 20,000 children in deprived communities in Ghana. For many of these children, the e-readers mark their first encounter with digital devices. Again, another encouraging example of private sector involvement in education, so hats off to Tigo for a great idea and the wherewithal to see it through.
Also…
Engage Africa Now (ENA), an NGO, used World Literacy Day (September 8) to intensify efforts to improve education in Ghana. (FYI: hyperlink is chock full of literacy statistics)
MTN is now accepting applications for its now annual teacher scholarship award program: an initiative to support teachers attain additional degrees.
Connecticut College has announced it will partner with a fellow liberal arts university, the Ashesi University College in Ghana. The partnership will “allow students and faculty from both institutions to explore opportunities for increased global learning and understanding.”
OpEd piece by a Harvard-educated Ghanaian lawyer about the shortcomings of the Ghanaian legal education system.