$27m Grant For Education Ministry

Mr Kwadjo Baah-Wiredu, Minister of Education Youth and Sports (MOEYS), on Thursday said 27 million dollars grant had been voted by the country's development partners to support education. The amount would be sourced from the World Bank and other donor agencies.

Mr Baah-Wiredu said this at the 10th Consultative Panel meeting of the Ministry at which he formally launched the 2003 to 2015 Education Strategic Plan (ESP) framework in Accra.

The two-day meeting is on the theme: "Implementing the Education Strategic Plan". It would provide a Forum for MOEYS and its Development Partners to share experiences, review outcomes and progress made, strengthen their relationships and commitments to the development of education in Ghana.

Mr Baah-Wiredu said the education development partners and the Education For All Fast Track Initiative (EFA/FTI) Secretariat in Washington had also reacted positively to proposals made by the MOEYS on the EFA/FTI.

He said it was anticipated that endorsement of the EFA/FTI would lead to additional donor resources to support primary education to enable the Government to achieve the millennium goal of universal primary education by 2015.

Mr Baah-Wiredu said the implementation of previous plans for the sector failed due to lack of resources, inadequate planning and ineffective monitoring and evaluation arrangements.

He said to facilitate the implementation of the ESP, a three year rolling plan - the Annual Educational Sector Operational Plan (AESOP) - has been developed to provide basis for annual budgeting.

The Minister commended the development partners for their continuous support and said the ESP would better be co-ordinated and harmonised to eliminate duplication to ensure effective use of the scarce resources.