Transcript PAPER PRESENTED BY HON. ANGELINA BAIDEN-AMISSAH DEPUTY MINISTER IN CHARGE OF BASIC AND TEACHER EDUCATION AT THE UNGEI TECHNICAL MEETING NOVEMBER 12, 2006

PAPER PRESENTED BY HON.
ANGELINA BAIDEN-AMISSAH
DEPUTY MINISTER IN
CHARGE OF BASIC AND
TEACHER EDUCATION
AT THE UNGEI TECHNICAL
MEETING
NOVEMBER 12, 2006
POLICIES AND STRATEGIES
TO EXPAND EARLY
CHILDHOOD CARE AND GIRLS’
EDUCATION IN GHANA
INTRODUCTION:
Ghana has since 1951, and especially
after independence in 1957, made
significant strides in its education
system. The system, as it is now, is
the result of major policy initiatives in
education adopted by both the present
and past governments
LAWS, POLICY DOCUMENTS AND REPORTS
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Accelerated Development Plan for Education (ADPE) 1951;
The Education Act of 1961
The New Structure and Content of Education 1974
The Education Commission Report of 1986, (which led to the
Education Reform Policy of 1987);
The Education Commission Report on Basic and Secondary
Education 1987/88.
The Education Reform Programme 1987/88
The Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education Programme,
1996.
The FCUBE Policy Document and Programme of Operations,
1996
CONSTITUTIONAL REQUIREMENT
• Article 38 of the 1992 Constitution of
Ghana requires Government to provide
access to Free Compulsory Universal Basic
Education, and depending on resource
availability, to Senior Secondary, Technical
and Tertiary education and life-long
learning.
• In recent times, the government’s
commitment towards achieving her
educational goals have been expressed in
the following policy frameworks and reports
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Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy 2002 –
2004 (GPRS, February 2002)
Education Sector Policy Review Report
(ESPRR, August 2002)
Education Sector Review (ESR, October 2002)
and the Government’s White Paper on the
report (2003).
Meeting the Challenges of Education in the
21st Century. (The report of the President’s
Commission on Review of Education Reforms
in Ghana, ERRC, October 2002).
Education for All (EFA, UNESCO, Dakar, 2000)
– international paper
The Education Strategic Plan (ESP) of 2003
KEY STRATEGIES IMPLEMENTED
• Expansion of Capitation Grant
• Scholarship Scheme to support needy girls
• Provision of bicycles to girls commuting long distances
to school
• Provision of food subsidies
• Community Mobilization on girls’ education.
• Construction of water and sanitation facilities (separate
toilets and urinals for girls). This is to bring about
gender friendly schools.
• School rehabilitation – (or construction of new
classrooms).
• Provision of incentives to female teachers to deploy
them in rural and deprived area.
• Provision of teaching learning Materials including
textbooks, workbooks, etc
• Provision of school furniture and other logistics
KEY ACHIEVEMENTS
• The policy interventions and initiatives have
not only helped in structurally transforming
the education system but also improved
considerably access, especially in the last
three years. For instance, available
statistics indicate that Total National Gross
Enrolment Rate (GER) stands at 92.1% in
2005/2006 academic year. GER for girls for
the same period is 88.8% while Gender
Parity Index (GPI) is 0.95.
KEY ACHIEVEMENTS (cont.)
• Primary Net Enrolment Rates (NER)
also increased over the period. For
instance, NER increased from 59.1%
in 2004/2005 to 69.2% in
2005/2006.
KEY ACHIEVEMENTS (cont.)
• Net Admission Rate (NAR) in primary
schools also improved over the
2004/05 – 2005/06 period. NAR
increased from 26.2% to 61.7% from
2004/2005 to 2005/2006, an
increase of 135.5%.
KEY ACHIEVEMENTS (cont.)
• Access to schooling for children with
disabilities and those with special
Education needs has, since
2001/2002, seen steady increases.
Figures for 2004/2005 represented a
40.5% increase (3,361 to 4,722) over
those of 2001/2002.
CHALLENGES
• In spite of these achievements,
however, the Government of Ghana
itself concedes that “although
enrolment is increasing at all levels of
education in Ghana, enrolment at
primary level has not been increasing
sufficiently to meet the goal of
Universal Primary Completion by
2015”.
CHALLENGES (cont.)
• Access to primary schooling remains the
first obstacle to UPE.
• A major barrier to achieving UPE by 2015
in Ghana is girls' lack of access to
education. Combinations of cultural and
socio-economic factors have been found to
contribute to this disparity. In some areas
families tend to favour boys over girls for
entrance into school.
CHALLENGES (cont.)
• The absence of early childhood
interventions is also a factor in the
provision of quality education,
especially when older siblings may
have to stay at home to care for
younger children.
THE WAY FORWARD
• To address some of the constraints to
achieving UPE, the Government of
Ghana, in 2004, came out with a
white paper on education reform. With
the reform, basic education will be
expanded to include 2 years of
Kindergarten as well as the existing 6
years of primary and 3 years of Junior
High Schools.
THE WAY FORWARD (cont.)
• The targets in the Education Strategic Plan
(ESP), which were due to be achieved in
Year 2015, are to be achieved earlier.
• For instance, the Gross Admission Rate for
entry into Primary One, which originally in
the ESP was to reach 100% by 2010, is now
to be achieved in 2006/2007.
THE WAY FORWARD (cont.)
• Primary 6 Completion rate, which was to
reach a level of 100% by 2015, is now to
be achieved by 2012.
• Gross Enrolment for Primary education
is now scheduled to reach 107.4% by
2012, in order to achieve Universal Basic
Completion by end 2015.
EXPANSION OF BASIC EDUCATION
The government’s decision to expand
Basic Education to include Early
childhood education (ECD) is based
on the recognition of the following:
EXPANSION OF BASIC EDUCATION
(cont.)
• ECD is the key to making children ready for
a successful primary school experience,
• ECD will, over time improve internal
efficiency of the education system as a
result of reduced repetitions and drop-out
rates
• ECD will result in increase of the number of
children starting primary education when
they are six years old (the official grade one
age in Ghana).
EXPANSION OF BASIC EDUCATION
(cont.)
• It will also result in increased learning
outcomes and opportunities for children to
continue their education after primary
education
• Investment in ECD and pre-primary
education is therefore also a sound
economic investment as it reduces the costs
per child to complete a full primary cycle
and has a high rate of return.
• It is expected that ECD will help to
“liberate” older siblings, especially girls, to
go to school instead of looking after younger
children.
EXPANSION OF BASIC EDUCATION
(cont.)
• They can help parents broaden their aspiration for
girls and better perceive the capabilities of their girl
child, increase the girl child's motivation and selfexpectation through early learning programmes
and thus increase the probability for girls'
enrolment and retention in primary school.
• Alternate and accessible quality childcare
programmes such as pre-schools (crèche, or
kindergarten or pre-primary) can relieve the girl
child from the responsibility of caring for her
younger siblings, and thus will allow her to attend
school.
EXPANSION OF BASIC EDUCATION
(cont.)
• If children enroll at the official kindergarten
age of 4 years they are likely to enroll at the
right age of 6 years in Primary school and
also complete the full cycle before the age
when most girls drop out.
• Finally, ECD programmes can provide
positive role models of fathers' participation
in the promotion of their girl child's right to
development, participation and learning
STRATEGIES FOR EFFECTIVE
IMPLEMENTATION OF ECD PROGRAMMES
COUNTRY-WIDE
• The establishment of a multi-sectoral team
to design and monitor ECD programmes.
• Development of the curriculum for
kindergarten 1 & 2
• Introduction of Capitation Grant to public
schools in the country.
• Introduction of the School Feeding
Programmes in selected schools to improve
the nutritional needs of school children.
STRATEGIES (cont.)
• Development of Guidelines for establishing
Early Childhood Development Centres
• The development of psychosocial Manual
for teachers at the preschool and primary
levels.
• Development of Early Learning standards
and indicators of Development for 4-5 year
olds.
STRATEGIES (cont.)
• All 20,000 kindergarten teachers in public
schools have been oriented on the new
curriculum.
CAPACITY BUILDING PROGRAMME
FOR KINDERGARTEN TEACHERS
• As part of capacity building programme for
kindergarten teachers, the University of
Education in Winneba has, since 2005,
been training students in early childhood
care and development. The new curriculum
has also been integrated into the
curriculum of Teacher Training Colleges to
ensure that enough qualified teachers are
produced for the KG sector.
GENDER DISPARITY
 There is persisting gender disparity in spite of its
constitutional guarantees and commitment to
achieve the MDGs, girls still lag behind boys in
Ghanaian education system.
 For the academic year 2002/2003, the national
Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) at primary level was
81.3% with figures of 84.6% and 78.0%
respectively for boys and girls, making primary
Gender Parity Index (GPI) of 0.92.
 Gender disparity widens slightly at junior
secondary school level. The national GER at JSS
level was 67.1% with figures of 71.7% and 62.4%
for boys and girls, making GPI of 0.87.
GENDER DISPARITY (cont.)
• The indication is that at least 22% of the
girls of school going age are denied their
rights to primary education. The Junior
Secondary is worse, about 40% of the girls
are not having this right fulfilled.
• gender disparity is greater in regions that
are low in the league table. For example,
primary girls GER of the Northern Region
for 2002/2003 was 59.5% while National
GER for girls was 78.0%.
GENDER DISPARITY (cont.)
• At the JSS level, the GER for girls in
the northern region (within the same
academic year was 33.2% (national
GER was 62.4%).
• GPI of the Northern Region at primary
and JSS levels are also challenging –
0.78 and 0.65 respectively (national
GPIs were 0.92 and 0.87).
MAJOR INSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGES
• The historic rise in enrolment figures pose a
number of emerging challenges such as
high Pupil-teacher ratios, large classes, etc;
• There is debate within the Education sector
over how to fund KG education, especially
given the push for increasing primary
enrolment. In 2005, 4 per cent of the total
expenditure of the Education sector was
directed to KG education.
MAJOR INSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGES
(cont.)
• Weak infrastructural base of ECD at both
national and district levels.
• Weak capacity of personnel to
implement ECD programmes. This
problem is compounded by irregular
training due sometimes to the absence of
skilled trainers and funds.
• Inadequate community involvement in
ECD programmes. Where the government
initiates a project, communities do not often
contribute much to its operation.
MAJOR INSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGES
(cont.)
• Shortage of School Facilities such as
Classrooms and logistics.
• Long Distances and Natural Impediments
to Schools: This problem is very common
especially in rural areas.
• Disease Burden of School Children: Some
of the common diseases that afflict school
children are malaria, pneumonia, diarrhea,
guinea worm, etc
MAJOR INSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGES
(cont.)
• Insufficient Trained Teachers: Trained teachers
are not available in adequate numbers. Trained
teachers, and particularly female trained teachers
who act as key role models to young girls, are not
adequately deployed in rural areas.
• Unintended Exclusion of Orphans and
Vulnerable Children (OVC): Orphans and
vulnerable children with disabilities are not
properly enabled to participate in the education
system.
• Inadequate funding for ECD/Pre-school activities:
Budgetary support for Pre-school activities has
been woefully inadequate.
THE WAY FORWARD
ALTERNATIVE POLICY OPTIONS
A combination of strategies will need to
be adopted and implemented if MDG2
is to be achieved in Ghana. These
would include the following:
THE WAY FORWARD (cont.)
• Reaching the vulnerable and excluded
• Strong government commitment, backed
by a strategic vision and policy framework
for the Education sector that has the
support of other key ministries like
Finance, Local Government, and Women
and Children’s Affairs
THE WAY FORWARD (cont.)
• The establishment of inclusive, effective
partnerships, domestic and international,
which will help to build a strong
constituency for education. This should be
Government-led.
• More predictable flows of aid from both
government and main funding agencies
which will enable the Government to
improve planning and implementation.
Timely, flexible donor support is a critical
factor.
THE WAY FORWARD (cont.)
• Maintaining the political commitment to
further increase budgetary allocation to the
education sector as a whole and primary
schooling especially, leading to a rise in the
share of primary education and real perpupil spending
• Addressing concerns of parents with regard
to what motivates them to send their
children to school, and how to keep them
there.
THE WAY FORWARD (cont.)
• Mainstreaming gender equality through the
development of all policies, strategies and
institutional practices to ensure that boys and girls
are accorded equal opportunity.
• Strengthening Decentralization for the
management of schools, and for the spending of at
least some resources, to the local level, including
by school managers. Also, strengthening the
capacity of institutions for planning, management,
monitoring and accountability
THE WAY FORWARD (cont.)
• Ensuring the access and inclusion of all
children
• Improving quality of education
• Taking action on emerging issues like
HIV/AIDS, child trafficking and child
labour.
THANK YOU