Senior Programmes Officer of Africa Education Watch, Divine Kpe, has asked the government to use the supplementary budget to increase budget allocations to education to at least 15 percent.

Speaking in an interview on Eyewitness News on Citi FM in Accra on Friday, he said this would help address the infrastructural deficits that have resulted in over 5,000 basic schools still remaining under trees across the country.

“The government should use the supplementary budget to increase the budget allocation to education to the minimum threshold of 15 percent. And this increment should be targeted at addressing the infrastructural challenges at the basic education level,” he stated.

This follows a report put together by some Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) that revealed that only 17 out of 5,400 schools under trees have been completed by the Akufo-Addo-led government since 2021.

The report, which was put together by 10 CSOs including STAR-Ghana, CAMFED and ActionAid, also added that at the current pace, it will take Ghana several years to eradicate the over 5,400 schools under trees, sheds and dilapidated structures.

Mr Kpe also stressed the need for the government to reconsider its plan of procuring tablets for Senior High Schools, adding that “the best government can do is to be prudent in its use of resources and that the money should be used for basic schools.”

He further urged them to procure textbooks and distribute same to basic schools across the country to enhance teaching and learning.

“Government should reconsider its plan of procuring tablets for SHSs. The best the government can do is to be prudent with resources and channel such monies to the basic schools,” he stated.

He said the government had to as a matter of urgency do everything possible to fulfil its promise to alleviate the menace, adding that “collaborate with corporate Ghana and address desks deficit in basic schools.”