Capitation Grant In Ga South Municipal Assembly

The Ga South Municipal Assembly, is one of the MMDAS created by the former president, J.A. Kufour by an Executive Instrument(EI) in the year 2008. It was then carved out of Ga West District in the year 2009 in pursuance of government decentralization and local government reform policy. The Municipal Assembly though as young as it is, is faced with several challenges. These challenges included education.

However, education has been a priority of every country. This explains why much importance is attached to the development of education in every country. Ghana is one of such countries that give much attention to education. The introduction of the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) and Capitation Grant show government's commitment to the development of education in Ghana.

Furthermore, the introduction of the Capitation Grant in addition to the free education enjoyed by every child of school going age, has been a blessing to all in the Ga South Municipal Assembly. The Capitation Grant is a grant paid by the government of Ghana to assist children in school. It is aimed at encouraging economically disadvantaged parents to send their wards to school and improve the quality and quantity of education in Ghana and therefore attempts to close the yawning income gap. One could say that, the introduction of the Capitation Grant has increased enrolment in schools in the Ga south municipal assembly. The grant is supposed to be paid every term by the Government of Ghana through the Education Directorate of the Ga South Municipal Assembly to assist children in schools. This has not been forthcoming due to government's pressure in relation to other economic commitments.

However, the little grant that is paid to the Education Directorate of the Ga South Municipal Assembly is not properly utilized for its intended purpose to support the activities of schoolchildren in schools. When government releases the Capitation Grant to the Education Directorate for onward disbursement to schools, the grant is sometimes not sent on time to enable headteachers use the grant for its intended. For instance, a grant that is intended to support pupils in the first term is released to the schools in the second term and sometimes in the third, so eventually the grant meant for the first never got released to the schools. This is affecting schoolchildren in the Ga South Municipal Assembly as teaching and learning materials needed cannot be bought to support academic work in schools. This can be said to explain why academic performance is low in the Ga South Municipal Assembly.

Additionally, the activities of the various headteachers in the Ga South Municipal Assembly cannot be left out of the question. They are supposed to be managers of the grant at the school level but this has not been the case. When the capitation grant is finally released to the deserving schools by the Education Directorate of the Ga South Municipal Assembly, headteachers in consultation with teachers are suppose to map out plans as to how the grant would be used effectively to the benefit of children in schools. This is often not done as headteachers claim that they are accountable to the grant released to the schools, so they had no business in discussing matters of the grant with teachers who handle the children at the classroom level.

However, in an interview with teachers in the Ga South Municipal Assembly, it was revealed that some headteachers even use the grant to engage in businesses in order to attract profit on the grant before been released to be use to service the welfare of children in the schools. Also some headteachers with corrupt motive inflate enrolment sent to the Municipal Education Directorate for the Capitation Grant to be paid on the said enrolment falsely claimed by such headteachers

Then also in an interview, the headteachers claim that they are often levied for sport and culture from the Capitation Grant. This levy has already been deducted by the Education Directorate already before paying the grant into the schools account. The sport and culture is supposed to be held once in every academic year. This is often not done but monies are deducted from the Capitation Grant for such activities by the Education Directorate. Also the Capitation Grant covers examination as well but children in the Municipality are levied for exams which the government has already paid for in advance as part of the grant released to the schools. The examination levies are often inflate thereby putting burden on the economically disadvanged parents.

Furthermore, one cannot overemphasized that the Capitation Grant is used for the intended purpose in schools in Ga South Municipal Assembly as most headteachers do not even purchase teaching and learning materials for teachers to use in the classroom to enhance teaching and learning. This can be said to cause financial loss to the state as such grants are not utilized for the intended purpose.

However, one could conclude that the Capitation Grant is not been utilize properly at all in the Ga South Municipal Assembly. This is evident by the result of the research carried out which made it obvious that the Education Directorate and headteachers of schools in the Ga South Municipal Assembly do not apply the Capitation Grant for its intended purpose to support children's education. It has rather enriched headteachers and some people in the Education Directorate of the Ga South Municipal Assembly.

I therefore suggest that authorities from the ministry of education come down to assess the situation on the ground to save the country from the huge loss of money into individual pocket hence rendering the capitation grant useless.

Jude Ofei
0243174600