Part (1)

Ideally, providing equality of opportunity in education is not an option but a legal requirement for every country that has a long -term vision. The UN Convention on the Right of the Child (UNCRC) treaty backs this. Ghana signed up to on 29th January 1990. Therefore by now one would expect that we have gathered enough intelligence to enable us monitor, review and evaluate progress made so far. This could be a short term or long-term and bearing in mind we have had 24 years to get things right.

A country’s future economic backbone relies on education of its youth. This is because the young people are the bedrock of the future of every nation. Early education facilitates that solid foundation children need. It is the inspirational factor that motivates children to aspire to greater things in later life. The empowerment gives them they get opportunities to escape poverty, gain a voice in their community and above all experience a better quality of life. Yet worldwide there are still more than 120 million children who are denied this opportunity. Why?

In Ghana, for example, our educational system is based on from one - four tiers system. The first tier is when children start their formal education at the age of six. This is in line with the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) the compulsory education age range is 6-14 years. However it is interesting to note that Early Childhood Development (ECD), which includes pre-school education (nursery/kindergarten)a two year kindergarten education programme is not formally considered as part of the basic education in Ghana. It could be accessed privately if parent/s can afford. Therefore from the start some children are deliberately disadvantaged through our system of education.

In the mean while, evidence from educational institutions show that some state schools are not producing pupils who are ready for the next stage SHS. I will like to think the current educational system is providing adequate support for these children who are struggling and come from poorer families. In contrast, in the developed countries however, the first tier level is for all three – five years’ olds regardless and it called the early years learning. It is interesting observing as a school governor children as young as 3 years taught about phonetics, Basic English Grammar, Basic Simple Maths, Basic knowledge of Geography of their immediate surrounding and basic foreign language. These are all in preparation to going to next level which 6-11 years. I would like to think that in the 21st century Ghana is also working towards providing all children a head start through early years education. Having had the opportunity to observe the abilities of the 6 years’ olds in the classroom environment during a governor visit in Britain had made me to acknowledge the areas of improvement in our educational worth emulating. I observed a teaching assistant supporting special educational needs pupils through a 1-1 early morning teaching sessions before the start of normal classes. Later on I noticed that the pupils being given a scenario and asked to write an incident report to the police so that had to recount events using a much description as they can. The pupils were encouraged to use more than one adjectives and adverbs to make their story line more interesting. The focus was for the pupils to seek the challenge at all times.

The pupils themselves have agreed on measures to be used in class for classroom control. It is not through caning. Playtime too was structured with assistance of a play teacher. Some private schools in Ghana are trying to emulate this as best practice whilst the state school continue to canes pupils for the sake of it. This is because state schools do not abide by the protocols of child protection policies

Being a School Governor of primary school in the U.K has made me to rethink about the way our children are taught. Often those struggling in schools are classified by our society as stupid. Where as in Britain the educational system make an annual provision for that group of children via the Budget Statement to ensure their needs are fully addressed. The largest categories are moderate learning difficulty as (24.2%) behaviour and emotional and social difficulties (22.7%) and speech and communications needs (16.3%). In addition with physical disabilities and speech language (3.8%)and autism spectrum disorders (8.1). As a result there is special educational have a code of practice, special educational needs and disability regulations 2014, special educational needs Act 2001 these underpin why children identified through universal screening are supported through a compulsory education from nursery until 16 years.

In contrast, children from poorer families are disadvantaged because of their parents are unable to pay for their nursery education and never get a head start and their needs never fully addressed. They are in a “catch 22 situation” often as they are from families who need them on the farms with both parents’ unemployed and need them to sell pure water to help the family to survive.

The concept of special educational needs does not currently exist in our educational system. However there are wider implications, which needs to be addressed before we can even broaden it to additional support needs. Some of these children are being bullied; others go through bereavement without any support etc.

In Ghana schools that have a high/er special educational needs children are not likely to have extra funding. The reason is that we do not have health screening for all children to identify those who may have needs like hearing/ poor eyesight, autism and there is no system in place to flag up concerns to be followed up in our educational system. As a result some schools never take on a child with special needs because there is no form of help from the school budget.

Why wasn’t the need of such children taken into consideration in this 2015 Budget statement? Don’t we appreciate that presently Ghana is made of people in higher roles that had benefitted from the free education, which was introduced in the sixties? That was forward long term planning is what is saving Ghana now! However that group of children who benefited are all aging and we need a new breed of the youth to take up the mantle and light the torchlight for future generations to come.

I find it difficult to believe that in a well-developed countries like the U.K or Sweden the child benefits system are offered to every child. All children also enjoy free nursery education for early years that includes free book supplies including and paid for some school trips.

Ghana could go that extra mile to factor housing benefit for those unable to afford a basic housing provision. As I write many children are being educated under trees in this 21st century Ghana. The Minister of Finance could help the Minister of Education in addressing these identified. It is good that efforts have been made in this Budget Statement for young children to enjoy free SHS and further education as money has been earmarked for that. The challenge is the provision for the early years.

Britain also experienced abject poverty at the end of the 18th century. The Government listened to the concerns of the citizens and introduced child benefit system on a trail basis in 1789. It stopped for a while but reintroduced in 1909. It has been in operation since then.

Ghana could set an example by being a beacon of hope in tackling poverty within families and emulating the forward thinking attributes of the Britain to eradicate child poverty. This approach can make a meaningful difference and give children and families a better chance in life.

Women in Ghana must campaign and lobby Parliament for financial assistance for children as a form of social support to families. With the discovery of oil on our shores we must change our ways and perhaps introduce child benefits for every child to stop child labour activities. This is not an option but must be taken into consideration to stop child maltreatment across Ghana. If we say we are the Black stars of Africa then we must begin to show that we are capable of managing of eradicating poverty in our society and alleviating the long term suffering of children and families.

Reports dating back on ghanaweb 5/7/11 stated that 23.3% of children were engaged in the hazardous activities in various sectors. When is Ghana going to strictly implement the national child labour policy? There has been some progress made however more needs to be done by the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare to alert the general public so that we all help in the monitoring and reporting cases to help with the reviews and evaluating mechanisms. For example, we could have a strong Child Protection policy, adopting the Every Child Matters document, Children’s Act 2004, The Francis and Munro Report, and Child Health programmes to under pin our policy. All these are currently operational in the U.K so why do we want to reinvent the wheel when we don’t even have the template? Having such process would be help all our institutions and we can make that the standard of best practice. This includes the Police, schools, churches etc. We must ensure that people of clean profiles are allowed near children.

Again, according to an article on Ghanaweb 6/7/11 which was reported that the then former Education Minister, Mrs Betty Mould Iddrisu, highlighted that a total of five thousand schools held classes under trees across the country. It is interesting to note that Ghana received the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) and some funds from the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) resources since 2003. Surely, given that the former Education Minister had identified these problems one would have automatically thought she would have discussed this with the Minister of Finance to earmark money in his budget for this or made recommendations to stop the practice?

The facts are:

1. As a form of education many children are still being educated under trees in many rural areas with no risk assessment of their plight. Examples of these can be found in North Tongu in areas like Mepe, Dofor and Juapong in the North Tongu District and many more. The younger ones three to five years’ olds miss out on education and some fall through the educational safety net. The children of the poor(and poorer children ) do not have access to any form of nursery education at all if their parents are unable to afford to send them to a private one. 2. No money earmarked in the current Budget Statement to ensure the investment of offering nursery placement to all children in Ghana. 3. The welfare of children and young families has been ignored in this Budget Statement and there was no mention of offering of a minimal child benefit to struggling parents without any proper jobs? 4 No provision made to ensure a highly quality care for pregnant women and throughout their pregnancy in order to have a normal child birth whenever possible. Also affordable homes to alley the anxieties that some women face after birth when left with no support from partners. 5 No provision made in the Budget Statement for the focus on the early intervention pregnant women and their children in treating postnatal depression/ assessment of a child with birth defeat at an early stage of life. 6 No provision made for the promotion of physical health, mental health and emotional well-being by encouraging families to improve their lifestyles.

7 No provision made for the introduction of child health promotion programme designed to promote the health and well being of children from before they are born to adulthood. 8 No provision made for the improvement of access to services for all children according to their needs, particularly those with special needs and their families, those in looked after care often being used in Ghana as slaves in some homes, or injured through child labour. 9. No provision made to give young people and their parents increased information, power and choice over the support and treatment they receive and involve these group in their planning o their care and services. Conclusions: Why have these concerns, which were identified back in 2011 not, been addressed? Is this not a priority for the Minister of Finance in his budget statement? What does being part of the UN convention for the rights of children signed in 1990 mean to the Government? Have we been able to achievement at least 60% percentage of the demands of the Treaty since joining 24 years old?