Akufo-Addo doesn’t have holistic policy on education – Agbodza

The Minority Chief Whip, Kwame Governs Agbodza has stated that President Akuf0-Addo’s administration has been pursuing their political promises with its educational policy.

According to him, the current administration has failed to view education in the country holistically.

“Indeed, the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia NPP government’s educational policy direction has been to pursue their political promises and not a holistic view of education.

“Thus, in formulating educational policy, valuable inputs from key stakeholders in our educational sector such as teachers, parent-teacher associations, CSOs, the opposition and even students like you, have been relegated to the background,” Mr. Agbodza stated during an event on the state of Ghana’s educational sector held at the University of Ghana – Legon.

The lawmaker for Adaklu added that the consequences of how this current administration is handling education have not been pleasant.

Below is the full statement by the Minority Chief Whip

THE STATE OF GHANA’S EDUCATIONAL SECTOR – GRADUATE EDUCATION IN PERSPECTIVE. A SPEECH READ BY THE MINORITY CHIEF WHIP, KWAME GOVERNS AGBODZA (MP), AT THE HANDING-OVER CEREMONY OF THE GRADUATE STUDENTS ASSOCIATION OF GHANA, UNIVERSITY OF GHANA, LEGON.

Sunday, 24 September, 2023.

Mr. Chairman, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I stand on already established protocol to convey warm greetings to you from the Minority Caucus in Parliament. I wish to congratulate all outgoing and incoming executives of GRASAG, Legon for continuing to uphold the interest of graduate students.

There can be no doubt whatsoever, that Ghana’s education sector is currently not in a good place. Over the past seven years, the educational priorities of this government have been two-fold;

• Reducing education to a mere administrative process of increasing enrolment mainly at the secondary level
• Reducing education to a political rhetoric for votes at the expense of quality

Indeed, the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia NPP government’s educational policy direction has been to pursue their political promises and not a holistic view of education. Thus, in formulating educational policy, valuable inputs from key stakeholders in our educational sector such as teachers, parent-teacher associations, CSOs, the opposition and even students like you, have been relegated to the background. The consequences have not been pleasant as you can all attest to.

The result of this government’s lack of consultation and policy coherence in education is an educational sector that is beset with multiple problems. Thus, whereas vast resources are being channelled into the middle of the educational structure (secondary education), learning outcomes remain poor, as confirmed by the IMF in its recent Staff Report on our request for a fund-supported programme. This lopsided prioritization has predictably dislocated both basic and tertiary education, thereby leaving us with a complex problem to grapple with.

Distinguished friends, even though our focus today is on the state of graduate education, it bears reminding that the various interlinked parts must all function properly if we are to succeed in producing that holistic and fully-baked graduate that we all want you to be. As I have already intimated, our educational sector today suffers from the general deficit of lack of sincerity and candour with policy, misplaced priorities, waste, corruption and leadership failure.

As a Minority group in Parliament, our oversight in this sector has revealed that the problem is not one of lack of adequate resources. Indeed, education remains one of the most heavily-funded areas of this administration. Allocations to the Ministry of Education and other areas of education in the 2023 budget, and the 2022 Appropriation Bill, bear this fact out.

Allocations to the Education Sector in the 2023 Budget and Appropriations Bill

• Ministry of Education (Main) – Twenty-two Billion, Nine hundred and Two million, Six hundred thousand, Seven hundred and fifty-three Ghana Cedis (GH₵22,902,600,753)
• Tertiary Education – Six Billion, Nine hundred and seventy-four million, Nine hundred and sixty thousand, Two hundred and ninety Ghana Cedis (GH₵6,974,960,290)
• Free Senior High School Programme – Two Billion, Nine hundred and fifty-seven million, Five-hundred and two thousand, Nine-two Ghana Cedis (GH₵2,957,502,092)
• GETFund – One billion, Eight hundred and Sixty-nine million, Five hundred and Sixty-three thousand, Two hundred and eighty-one Ghana Cedis (GH₵1,869,563,281)
• Scholarship Secretariat – Two hundred and twenty-three million, two hundred and seventy-one thousand, thirty-nine Ghana Cedis (GH₵223,271,039)

It is important to state that these appropriations exclude allocations to other agencies under the Ministry of Education and existing interventions in education. Undoubtedly, education and human capital development remain a top priority of every government worth its salt, and as we speak, Ghana’s educational sector is not bereft of adequate resource allocation under this present government.

The begging question, ladies and gentlemen, remains whether all these resources are being channelled into priority areas to address the numerous challenges and improve outcomes. The answer to this is a big no. The Minority is very much aware that as we speak, Graduate Students Bursaries remain unpaid by this government for two years, as the Scholarship Secretariat continues to hold them in arrears. Indeed, the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat has come under the spotlight in recent time, with serious allegations of illegal sale of scholarships meant for deserving students to cronies, family members and friends of persons in this Akufo-Addo/Bawumia NPP government. The Minority will in the coming days activate the right processes to get the Administrator of the Scholarship Secretariat to answer to why GRASAG bursaries are in arrears for two good years.

Another issue that continues to hamper graduate studies, and indeed other levels of tertiary education is the perennial and acute shortage of accommodation facilities. It is regrettable that the current administration has neglected to undertake the right investments that were pursued by successive governments to address this challenge. Abandoning young students to the mercy of exploitative private hostel owners and landlords in places like Accra, is another downside of the unplanned policy implementation which focuses solely on enrolment numbers without provision for decent accommodation.

The final challenge in our current educational puzzle is the issue of graduate unemployment. Recent statistics point to an ever-worsening unemployment situation which currently stands at about 13.8%, according to the Ghana Living Standards Survey by the Ghana Statistical Service. I need not belabour the point about the state of our badly mismanaged economy today, but the impact of our present economic meltdown on the ability of an already limited job market to absorb the teeming number of graduates we churn out every year, cannot escape my attention.

As a Minority in Parliament, we are deeply concerned by the growing despondency among young people and the lack of decent opportunities for our graduates, and we shall continue to hold government accountable for its promises to young people. This is our charge to keep in solidarity with the young people of Ghana, and we shall not renege on it. I urge all of you to continue to work hard in your studies and to hold on to the hope of a better tomorrow.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC), which has always represented the best interest of young people, will in the coming months outline our plans for graduate students. We look forward to engaging progressively with you on policies and programs that will advance your welfare. God bless our homeland Ghana. Thank you.

Source: Today.com.gh