Parliament has approved GH29.5 billion for the Education Ministry.
The approval is the highest allocation compared to any other ministry, department, or agency.
However, allocation for schools with special needs was just little more than GH500,000.
The House did not appropriate any capital expenditures or goods and services.
Following this, some MPs have emphasised the importance of the government allocating additional cash to special needs schools.
The Majority and Minority Leaders who raised the issues stated it was critical that special needs schools receive greater funding to manage their schools.
The Minority Leader, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson expressed dissatisfaction with this allocation.
He argued that allocating such an amount to schools with special needs was unacceptable.
The approved funds are allocated to various educational sectors, but there is a need to increase the budget for schools with special needs, he said.
“But one matter of significant importance to me, Mr Speaker is that even though the ministry has been allocated 29.5 billion Ghana cedis, only 673,429 – Mr Speaker under one million Ghana cedis has been allocated to special education.
“Mr Speaker, special education is something that we should take quite seriously as a country because clearly there are number of special schools in the country but unfortunately, this budget is allocating less than 1 million Ghana cedis for special education,” he said.
‘With GH₵7.7 million allocated to tertiary education, GH₵5.7 billion to basic education, GH₵2.6 billion to second cycle education, and GH₵106 million to non-formal education, I find it puzzling why special education has been allocated less than GH₵1 million.
“Mr Speaker, I think it’s something that we should be interested in and get the Ministry of Finance or the Ministry to do some reallocation,” he noted.
The Majority Leader reacting said “It says that the allocation is just GH₵1 million, less than GH₵1 million. I want to believe that is a typo or error, I don’t want to believe. Mr Speaker, we have an allocation of some amount in excess of 100 million to non-formal education.
“Mr Speaker, we need to spend more on the special schools, not the non-formal education. So I would want to plead that if we can do a reallocation from the non-formal education to the special schools, it should be good,” he indicated.
He also proposed at least GH₵20 million from non-formal education to special schools.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
