Science to humanities ratio increased from 34:66 in 2017/2018 to 39:61 in 2022 – Education Minister

The Minister for Education, Dr Yaw Adutwum, has disclosed that Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) campaign has increased the ratio of science to humanities from 34:66 in 2017/2018 to 39:61 in 2022.

Answering another question in Parliament on Wednesday, the Minister said the need for more science graduates cannot be overstated.

"This is evident in the growing numbers of companies and businesses in the sciences and technology value chain," he added.

He said the Ministry of Education was committed to increasing Science enrollment at all levels of the country's education system in its Education Strategic Plan (2018-2030).

He said the Ministry hopes to achieve a 60:40 ratio of enrollment in the sciences and humanities at the tertiary level.

In a related development, Dr Adutwum disclosed that the government has spent GHC5.12 billion on the free SHS programme between 2017 and 2021.

Giving a breakdown of the expenditure, he said a budget of GHC 400 million was approved for the Ministry of Education in 2017, while in 2018, out of the GHC 1.13 billion budget allocation, GHC904 million was expended.

Dr Adutwum, who was in answering another question in Parliament on how much the government had spent on the free SHS programme between 2017 and 2021, added that in 2019, the Ministry received GHC1.28 billion and spent GHC1.08 billion on the programme.

He said in 2020, out of the GHC2.42 billion budget allocation, the Finance Ministry released GHC1.40 billion and GHC1.75 billion was expended, while in 2021, out of the GHC1.97 billion budget allocation, the Finance Minister only released GHC877.7 million and the Education Ministry spent GHC 1.9 billion.

Dr Adutwum reiterated that the free SHS programme was introduced to improve access and quality of secondary education in Ghana. He said since its inception, the programme has contributed to improving learning outcomes in second-cycle institutions.