Deputy Ranking Member on the Education Committee of Parliament, Dr. Clement Apaak, has taken a swipe at the government, accusing it of poorly managing education in Ghana, especially at the basic level.
He said that although basic education was the foundation, the Akufo-Addo and Bawumia-led administration has failed to provide the needed resources and infrastructure for our schools to function effectively.
Dr. Apaak addressed journalists on Monday, November 27, 2023. He said that currently, 2.3 million schoolchildren do not have access to furniture in our public schools.
He lamented that the 2.3 million of these schoolchildren sit on their bullies and other unconventional means to study.
He said we have this problem, and ”yet we have a President who has a Vice President who wants to take over from him, and he found it expedient to spend $20,000 per hour for Nana Addo to fly around the globe at a time we cannot pay capitation grants.
Yet we have a president who has found it prudent to dig the most expensive hole in the world in the name of fulfilling a personal pledge.
When it comes to action, this government has done a great disservice to Ghanaians. When last did you hear schools were given free school uniforms?”
He contended that we cannot pretend to be constructing a structure or a superstructure on a foundation that is weak, emaciated, and resource-starved.
He claimed that since Akufo-Addo took over almost every year, funding in the education sector has decreased.
He emphasised that funding for SHS has increased, whereas funding for tertiary education has remained averagely stagnant.
The MP for Builsa South asked how we can claim to be doing well when our capitation grant has been in arrears for eight terms, or more than two years, a situation that has forced our school heads to borrow money to run our public basic schools.
He went on to say that no public school in the country has a full complement of textbooks, despite the fact that the government has admitted that only 60% of the textbooks are available.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
