They said prior to 2015, there existed a free exercise book policy for public basic schools and that afforded children from poor households an opportunity to have exercise books to participate in learning.

“In 2017, government introduced a free exercise book policy in senior high schools and discontinued that of basic schools. According to the Ministry of Education, providing free exercise books, notebooks and learning materials have helped improve learning in senior high schools (SHSs). 

“Basic school teachers, on the other hand, continue to struggle to teach effectively when some pupils do not have exercise books, which is the case in many schools in the 75 deprived districts and urban slums. The lesson on benefits of free exercise books in secondary schools is useful for basic schools,” the organisations said.

Organisations

The organisations, which made the call at a press conference in Accra last Thursday, included the Star-Ghana Foundation, Action Aid, International Child Development Programme, Africa Education Watch, SDG Civil Society Platform Ghana, Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition, CAMFED, World Vision, Ghana National Association of Teachers, Coalition of Concerned Teachers, Ghana.  

Speaking on behalf of the group, the Country Director of ICDP and Convenor for SDG Four (Education), Joyce Larnyoh, charged the government to depoliticise the recruitment of teachers by removing Members of Parliament (MPs) from the recruitment process.   

“We are gravely disturbed about the recent public distribution of teachers’ appointment letters by some MPs a week before the Ghana Education Service (GES) released letters of appointment to teacher applicants.

“The public claim by the MPs about the role they played in securing appointment letters for teachers who were political party agents, suggests that political factors, other than the demand for teachers, may have influenced to a higher extent, the 2023 limited teacher recruitment.

“The politicised deployment of teachers has negative implications for teacher management and equitable distribution of teachers, especially in districts where MPs are not from the ruling government,” she said.

Budgetary allocation

Ms Larnyoh called for an increase in the budgetary allocation to basic education from the current 12 per cent to at least 15 per cent of the total national budget, using the supplementary budget window.

Moreover, she said the government must prioritise the disbursement of allocated discretionary education budget to increase the low budget execution to at least 100 per cent by the end of the current financial year.

“The anticipated budgetary increment in a (above), which amounts to over GH¢ 4.3 billion, should as a matter of urgency and necessity be allocated to augment the hugely underfunded basic education goods and services budgets, and construct about 5,000 schools existing under trees, sheds and dilapidated structures,” she said.

She said the government must also discontinue the plan to procure laptops for senior high school students and ensure that basic schools had the full complement of textbooks.

“The government must immediately procure textbooks and workbooks in all relevant subjects for all basic school pupils. The government must re-introduce the supply of free exercise books to all public basic schools,” she emphasised.

The Convenor said the state must also diversify the financing source for the Capitation Grant to include the Annual Budget Funding Amount, which was more reliable, while benchmarking its annual increment with annual inflation data.