Basic education requires full attention

In the heat of political campaigning for Elections 2024, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) promised to pay the tuition fees of all students who gained admission into tertiary institutions, a promise that has been duly implemented for this year. It appears, however, that the sustainability of the policy cannot be guaranteed, hence a proposal by the minister for education that 2.5%of Ghana’s oil revenue be committed to education particularly for scholarships and bursaries, including the stress-free financial assistance for all first year admissions into Ghana’s universities.

Recently, the education minister also announced plans to reoganise or upgrade the Institute of Local Government Studies into a specialised institution for the training of Local Governance experts.

In as much as the proposals are laudable and worth pursuing, in order to advance the cause of tertiary education, let us not ignore basic education, which is struggling to survive.

The foundations of Ghana’s education system is labelled Free, Compulsory and Universal Basic Education(FCUBE); but the Ministry of Education cannot pretend to be unaware of the prevailing situation where school children at the basic level are paying for teaching and learning materials, even though tuition is free. In other words, the free education policy at the Basic level is not being fully implemented as parents are over-burdened with the payment of all kinds of levies.

Upon admission to any class at the basic level, a pupil or student is required to buy a desk and school uniforms. Then, a tall list of exercise, note and text books, besides erasers, sharpeners, pencils, pens and chalkboard wipers will be provided for purchasing.

Then, from time to time, parents are levied to undertake certain school projects, including the construction of fence walls and toilets, as well as contribute to paying the salaries or allowances of security personnel and cleaners. Pupils/Students are also made to pay for extra classes (which are hardly ever organised, anyway), class Assessment tests (CATs), examination fees and buy brooms, and dusters .

The Ministry of Education recently issued a directive that school children should not pay for class or internal examination, but the directive was ignored as the head masters responded that the directive could not be complied with without the Ministry providing the required funding for the running of the schools.

The attention or focus on tertiary education cannot, therefore, come at the expense of basic education; for, “If the fundamentals are weak, …”.

Why should parents be compelled to pay for something which is supposed to be free? It is mind-boggling for public institutions to be underfunded while politicians have so much money to buy votes during elections.

Without a solid foundation, standards will be compromised to the extent that some highly educated persons are heard pronouncing the word “consequently” as “cwensequently”; where Members of Parliament are heard shouting “Yeah Yeah” instead of “Hear Hear”; where news readers and other speakers are heard pronouncing “agust, anest, lanch and bady” instead of August, honest, launch and body; where lawyers, judges and lay persons alike are heard saying “praima fashie” instead of prima feshi(facie) and where the refrain is “like I said” instead of “as I said”. When one says “Most at times” instead of “most of the time”, the fundamentals are weak. If one is heard saying “many at times” rather than “many a time”; if one confuses the word “outset” with “onset”, the fundamentals are weak. Many of us are unable to pronounce the words “status, incumbent, mutual and verbatim” correctly because the fundamentals are weak. When instead of “early on”, we say “earlier on”; when we say “last but not the least” instead of “last but not least”; and when one says “Old student” instead of “Old Boy/Girl” or “Former or Past student”, the fundamentals are weak.

To strengthen the foundation on which secondary and tertiary education must stand, Basic education must be given full attention.

The writer is a Journalist and a Lawyer.