More Children still out school, despite ...

Accra, Nov. 9, GNA - Four out every 10 Ghanaian children of school going age do not go to school despite the introduction of the Capitation Grant and the Free Compulsory Basic Education programmes, Oxfam, report has said.

The findings form part of the Great Britain's Oxfam new international report for 2006.

It said one in three children would soon be leaving primary school if efforts were not intensified to ensure that they go to school, stay and complete their education.

Mrs. Sonia Kwami, Education Programme Officer of the Oxfam Ghana Office said this when she gave the highlights of the report at a press conference in Accra.

The report, which will be officially launched in December, has the title: "In the Public Interest" and a country level theme, "2007 National Budget should prioritise public health, education, water and sanitation as key to poverty reduction".

"With discussions underway about the 2007 budget, now is a crucial time for the government of Ghana to work on behalf of its citizens and lock in its financial commitment to cutting poverty, improving access to education and overhauling the health care system, hence the highlights of the report", she added.

Mrs. Kwami said education should be a crucial component if Ghana would like to continue with its steady progress towards becoming a leader in the global struggle for parity for the developing world. She said there was the need for government to invest in essential social services such as education, sanitation and water if Ghana wanted to meet the targets of the Millennium Development Goals in 2015.

She explained that there was a shortfall of 17,612 basic schoolteachers resulting in many school children dropping out of school, adding "Ghana needs about 18,000 more well trained teachers who would be well compensated so they may walk into the classrooms confident and prepared to educate our children".

Citing the recent strike embarked on by the NAGRAT, she called on the government to be paying "decent salaries for those good and competent people who have the responsibility of educating our children=94.

Mrs. Kwami noted that Ghana was far behind its pledge in spending 15 per cent of its national budget on providing quality health care to the people of Ghana.

She said government's recent efforts in reforming the national health insurance scheme was a good step, "but will have to triple spending on health in order to meet a goal that was set in solidarity across the Economic Community of West African States".

She said there was need for government to continue with its support and expand of the HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment efforts and be committed to other basic health care needs of the people. Mrs Kwami urged government to ensure that Ghanaians irrespective of their locality have access to clean and portable drinking water and ensure environmental cleanliness to prevent the upsurge of diseases. Dr Nii Moi Thompson an economist, who chaired, said the development of the county should be based on human welfare and not on Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

According to him social spending has increased from 30.4% in 1999 to over 40% in 2006 and yet "there has not been any social impact of this increment"

He noted that education; health and water, which were essential for human development, still elude the people and urged government who had the wider option to formulate good policies that would raise domestic resources to deal with the social problems.