Education Coalition Calls for an End to Exclusion

from All Africa

Public Agenda (Accra)

By Frederick Asiamah
Accra

On the platform of the 2008 Global Action Week (GAW) on Education, the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC) has called for more concerted efforts towards delivering quality education in order to end exclusion, especially in the three northern regions.

The coalition warns: "Unless steps are taken to ensure that qualified teachers are assigned to all classrooms with acceptable numbers, the goal of quality education for all may not be achieved."

Similarly, the coalition fears that Ghana's commitment to the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary school completion by 2015 may be dashed.

Worldwide, some 70 million children of school-going age are still outside the system. 800,000 of these children are estimated to be in Ghana with majority of them in the three northern regions, according to the 2007 global monitoring report on education.

GNECC fears the problem could worsen if mitigating measures are not put in place. However, the focus should be on quality education and not just any kind of education, the coalition emphasised at the launching of GAW 2008 in Accra on Wednesday.

Locally, the week is being observed under the theme: "Quality Education to end Exclusion" and the launching took place simultaneously with those of about 50 other countries. The week is usually observed worldwide between April and May every year.

Mr. Bright K. Appiah, Chairman of GNECC, said drop out rate at the basic level was very high in Ghana despite the capitation grant.

For instance, prevailing levels of poverty account greatly for the drop out rate in the three northern regions, said Dr. Don Taylor, the Director of Education, Department for International Development (DFID), an agency of the UK Government that manages Britain's aid to poor countries and works to get rid of extreme poverty.

Dr. Taylor explained that due to the poverty, some children are compelled to work for their parents either as farm hands or in other sectors to enable the family feed themselves. Other children have disabilities, hence the schools are unable to meet their peculiar needs.

Naa Prof John S Nabila, Wulugunaba and Member of the National House of Chiefs said lack of quality education among the three northern regions has led to wider migration proportions.