A Deputy Ranking Member of the Education Committee of Parliament, Dr. Clement, has warned more schools will soon collapse because capitation grants are still in arrears.
The MP for Builsa South lamented that the grants were in arrears for seven terms.
He said the headmasters in the schools are struggling to manage their schools.
He said ideally, the government should pay GHC 10 per head in the schools; however, a headmaster in a school was given GHC 500 for a student population of 400.
Dr. Apaak said it is the capitation grant that makes public basic education in the Republic of Ghana free. The grant is supposed to be the money that will cover the expenses that the parents would have incurred. And that is why, if your child is in a private school, they pay expensive fees. This is because they are not covered. That is why the state has taken charge of public schools by remitting to them the capitation grants. That should cover all expenses, including maintenance, attendance books, basic supplies, including chalk, sports, and cultural activities.
The day-to-day management of our schools is jeopardised because the government has refused to remit the schools’ capitation grants for the next seven terms. That is two and a half years. How do you expect our primary schools to function when textbooks have not been distributed to our schools since the implementation of the new curriculum in 2019? No school in the Republic of Ghana can claim to have a full complement of the textbooks.
He went on to say that, even with the school feeding programme, the government refused to grant caterers a reasonable allowance per child so that they could provide nutritious meals.
”Do we take ourselves seriously in this country? We reserve the right to call this government a braggart and incompetent. The government has messed up the basic education sector, and if basic education is not right, you are not serious about improving education in Ghana.”
The MP was responding to a story of 400 schoolchildren being left stranded as a rainstorm ripped off the roof of a classroom block.
Over 400 students from the Manle Dada Basic and African Unity schools in the La Dadekotopon Municipality are in danger of losing their lives after a rainstorm destroyed their classrooms.
The African Unity School’s nine-unit classroom block and adjoining offices were destroyed in May of this year, but they have yet to be renovated.
A rainstorm on September 22 destroyed three classrooms out of the nine-unit block at Manle Dada Basic School.
Dr. Apaak stated that it was not right for this government to jeopardise the future of our children due to poor prioritisation, corruption, and mismanagement of public resources. This explains the outpouring of rage, grief, tension, pressure, and stress.
”The recent figure of 2.5 million mentally unstable people could be higher due to this government’s incompetence, and if care is not taken, very soon, people will hit the streets, and that would be the end of our democracy,” he said. The government has failed, but they continue to claim that they will break the 8. With this level of incompetence and corruption, can you break the 8?”
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