Poor infrastructure conditions in public basic school - CDD

Preliminary report from Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) Ghana survey on tracking public basic school infrastructure in five regions has revealed poor infrastructural conditions, most of which are unfriendly to persons with disabilities.

The report revealed that most of the school infrastructures lack basic standards such as adequate classrooms, proper ventilations, safety floors, roofing, toilet facilities, water, as well as fencing to provide security for both pupils and equipment.

According to Mr Francis Tsegah, a Senior Fellow, CDD-Ghana, it was critical to bring some of the challenges of assessing public basic education in Ghana to the fore to enable the government to examine, strengthen and implement policies that are geared towards ensuring quality and healthy outcomes.

Mr Tsegah who was addressing participants at a validation workshop said spending about 6.3 per cent of Gross Domestic Product on education shows how important the sector is, in terms of promoting socio-economic development.

He said although the investment have yielded some dividend in terms of increased enrolment levels in public basic educational levels, it failed to attract corresponding development of infrastructure and enhanced teaching and learning materials such as textbooks and computer laboratories.

The quality of infrastructure has affected education outcomes in most parts of the country, he said.

The survey, which was funded by the STAR-Ghana project, seeks to track the provision of the infrastructure as provided by the Ghana Education Trust Fund, District Assembly’s Common Fund and the Members of Parliament Common Fund among other organisations.

Mr Tsegah said this could incite public debate and speed up advocacy in the expansion and standardisation of such infrastructure to improve the retention rate of pupils, especially girls, at the basic levels of education.

Mr Edward Ampratwum, Research Officer, CDD, said issues of gender sensitivity were often not considered in the construction of washroom facilities.

Ms Regina Oforiwaa-Amanfo Tetteh, Programme Manager, commented on the absence of disability friendly infrastructure in most public basic schools.

She called on government to take urgent action to address the infrastructural challenges in order to achieve the aim of education for all and also meet the Millennium Development Goals two and three on attaining universal access to basic education.