In July 2012, at what became known as the Rio+20 summit, leaders from twenty (20) countries gathered in Brazil for a United Nations summit on Sustainable Development to deliberate and produce a set of universal goals aimed at addressing global human concerns. At this meeting, world leaders agreed and committed to starting efforts to develop this set of objectives. These goals were intended to replace and build on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, which had been established earlier and were slated to expire in 2015.
This commitment, together with further processes, resulted in the establishment and acceptance of a set of seventeen (17) goals agreed upon in September 2015 to serve as the global development agenda, known as Agenda 2030. Thus, the Sustainable Development Goals. These were seventeen (17) sets of goals, with objectives outlining what each aim comprises. The SDGs are a set of goals that touch and concern all members of the human race. It aimed to abolish poverty in all of its forms around the world, emphasizing shared commitment and everyone’s collaborative participation.
One of these seventeen aims was primarily focused on education. SDG 4 focuses on quality education and contains seven aims. Target 1 of SDG-4 aims to ensure that all girls and boys get free, equitable, and high-quality primary and secondary education by 2030. This article will examine and explore Ghana’s progress toward achieving this goal, which is only five years away from completion.
Assessing the Gains Made Towards Accessing Free, Equitable, and Quality Primary Education in Ghana
Article 25 of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution outlines the educational rights of all citizens. Specifically, sections (a) and (b) of this article state the following:
- (a) Basic education must be free, compulsory, and accessible to everyone.
- (b) Secondary education, including its various forms such as technical and vocational education, should be made broadly available and accessible to all citizens through all appropriate means, particularly through the gradual introduction of free education.
In effect, the target 1 of the SDG goal 4 is a provision already enshrined in the Ghanaian constitution.
In 1995, the Ghanaian government implemented the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) policy, which aimed to ensure that every school-age child in the country had access to basic education. This policy was in line with a constitutional requirement, thus, article 25 of the 1992 Ghanaian Constitution. Basic education in this regard consisted of kindergarten, six years of primary education, and three years of junior secondary school.
The policy aimed to promote basic access and participation. By 2000, basic school enrollment had risen to 7.9%, while the number of public schools in the country had grown by 9.5%. Successive administrations built on these achievements, implementing laws and programs that boosted access and enrollment.
The School Feeding Programme which ensured that pupils in very deprived areas were fed in school at no cost was one of such programme. With time, this programme was expanded to benefit a wider range of public basic schools in the country. The Capitation grant, which was an amount of money per pupil enrolled in a basic school per year paid by the government to the schools in place of the school levies paid by guardians was also introduced in 2005. This came to offload any form of cost associated with basic education in Ghana. Basic school enrollment was shot up by 14% after its introduction.
A media article published by the Guardian Newspaper disclosed in 2015 that 90% of children (six years and older) in Ghana were enrolled in school. In essence, Ghana has significant gains in ensuring that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary education.
Assessing the Gains Made Towards Accessing Free, Equitable, and Quality Secondary Education in Ghana
Again, the Constitution of Ghana makes provision for the progressive introduction of free education at the secondary level. This is geared towards making secondary school education accessible to all Ghanaians. In September 2015, the government of the day began implementation of a progressive free secondary school education in Ghana. This policy came to augment the already free tuition policy in Senior High schools by absorbing other essential fees such as library fees, exams fees, ICT fees, sports fees, culture fees, entertainment fees, SRC fees, and science and maths-related fees. In effect, all-day students in public second-cycle institutions from September 2015 paid no form of fees. The government also initiated plans to expand infrastructure by constructing two hundred (200) E-block facilities nationwide.
After a change of government in 2017, the new government sought to expand the gains made in the progressive free secondary education in Ghana. As such, it fully implemented the Free Senior High School (FSHS) policy which ensured that all public Senior High Schools in the country would be accessed freely by all who were placed by the Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS). The policy intervention took care of tuition fees, library fees, the provision of free textbooks, free access to boarding facilities, the free provision of meals, and the coverage of examination, science laboratory, and utility fees.
Data provided by the FSHS Secretariat indicated that between 2017 and 2023, a total of 2,565,430 students benefitted from this programme, with the highest enrollment occurring in 2023, with a total of 503,000. Also, the Free SHS programme has consistently since 2019 seen more females being registered and sitting the West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
In Conclusion
It is obvious that Ghana has achieved significant progress toward achieving SDG goal 4 target 1: ensuring that all girls and boys get free, equitable, and high-quality primary and secondary education by 2030. This achievement, however, was not without challenges. According to a December 2021 publication by the Business and Finance Times, 5403 schools are still in severe condition, while 2,417 are under trees. The article also stated that more than 3.5 billion Ghana Cedis were required at the time to alleviate the country’s educational infrastructure deficit. All of these issues raise serious concerns about the country’s educational quality.
It will take a more conscious and organized effort to attain a 100% score by 2030 in attaining the SDG 4 Target 1. Notable successes that have been chucked in efforts to attain this goal and target are proof that it is possible and doable. It lies in the hands of policymakers and stakeholders to properly assess the gains and shortfalls in the educational system as highlighted in this work. Five years from 2025 should be enough to upscale the country from 90% success to 100% to fully attain the Quality education goal that ensures that all girls and boys complete free, equitable, and quality primary and secondary education by 2030.
Article by
ASAMOAH ISAAC ELI
