Africa Education Watch is calling on the government to take steps to facilitate the smooth supply of textbooks and the disbursement of funds to ensure the smooth operation of basic and senior high schools as they resume on Tuesday, January 10.

The education think tank says the budget cuts on education for the 2022/2023 academic year will be a major hurdle that needs to be curtailed to prevent the closure of schools way into the academic year.

Speaking to Citi News, the Senior Programmes Officer of Africa Education Watch, Divine Kpe explained that, the academic calendar went through some challenges last year which must be prevented going into the 2022/2023 academic year.

“2023 is going to be a difficult year for basic education because of the budget cuts that basic education has experienced. When you look at the goods and service budget line, it has been reduced by 44 percent. This year, GH¢167 million has been allocated to basic schools and out of it, GH¢11 million is to go for capitation grants but the students’ population at the basic education level is projected at 6 million, so we need about GH¢60 million for capitation grants alone. From history too, we know that all the needed funds will not be released because history tells us that it is usually 60 percent that is released.”

Mr. Kpe advised that the government should be thinking of uncapping GETFund so that the needed funds can be disbursed to schools across the country.

“Our expectation is that GETFund will be uncapped so that all the money accrued to the fund can be allocated to the schools.”

“Our expectation is that the government will ensure a high percentage of execution of the budget where all the monies should be released to the schools,” he added.