Call on government to monitor capitalization grant.

Accra, Sept. 23, GNA - The Chairman of the Education sub-committee of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) on Friday, called on government to monitor the disbursement of the capitation grant to ensure that it was used for the intended purpose.

He said although the grant was not enough to cover all expenses of schools, stakeholders needed to exercise accountability and transparency in order to utilize the grant for its purpose.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra, Mr Samuel Allotey Addo, suggested that a monthly report on all expenses outside the grant should be made available to the District Education Office and the Assembly for updates to the Ministry of Education.

He explained that although government's effort to provide basic education for all was in the right direction, the committee had observed that the lack of infrastructure would pose a threat by the year 2007.

"The children keep coming in, but the committee has observed that the classrooms are not enough to accommodate them, l am afraid this will be a problem by 2007," he said.

The Chairman said the committee had also noted that the enrolment of primary one pupils, who were in kindergarten together with the other children who had no kindergarten education, would overburden teachers as they teach pupils with different academic levels.

He said teachers therefore needed effective supervision and monitoring to deal with the challenge and appealed to government to ensure that the situation would not have an effect on basic education in the country.

He called for more sensitisation programmes for heads of schools, teachers and parents to keep them abreast with the new system. As to what the AMA would do to encourage parents to enrol their wards, Mr Allotey Addo said an information van would be sent to various areas to educate them on existing vacancies to deal with low enrolment rates in the metropolis.