This is the first time, post-COVID, that first-cycle students are officially beginning the academic year in September, as was the case previously.

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The disruption caused by the global pandemic necessitated adjustments to the academic calendar.

But now, as the situation gradually stabilizes, Ghana is taking a crucial step towards normalising its educational calendar.

Public basic schools are currently ending their vacation period, with anticipation building among students, parents, and teachers for the commencement of the new academic year.

The Public Relations Officer of GES, Cassandra Twum-Ampofo, shed light on the decision in an interview with Adom News.

“We recognize the importance of re-establishing a familiar academic rhythm for our students and ensuring that they have the opportunity to continue their educational journey with minimal interruptions,” she said.

Stakeholders in the education sector are optimistic the development will ensure a stable learning environment which will allow students to focus on their studies and for teachers to provide quality education.

As the nation prepares to usher in the 2023/2024 academic year, there is a sense of renewed hope and determination to overcome past challenges and provide Ghana’s youth with the education they deserve.

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According to him, checks by the committee prove that no school in the country has all the textbooks introduced in the new curriculum.

“No public basic school in the Republic of Ghana has the full complement of textbooks produced on the back of the new school curriculum that was unveiled in 2019,” he said on Monday.

His comments come on the back of a visit by the Quality Assurance Committee of parliament to schools to assess the availability of textbooks following a promise by the Education Minister that the distribution of textbooks was going to happen.

Speaking on Newsnight on Joy FM, Dr Apaak insisted that no school has the full complement of the new textbooks.

This was in spite of the fact that, the host of the show, Evans Mensah referenced a headteacher in Cape Coast who had told the Quality Assurance Committee that they had the full complement of their textbooks.

He retorted, “I doubt, I have my doubt and I say so because the Ranking Member of the committee just told me that the list that was given was generated by the ministry. That in itself defeats the motive for the exercise.”

He continued that “I am also quite curious that rather than spreading it out and perhaps rather than let the committee go to the less endowed part of this country; in this case, the five regions in the Northern part of this country, they have chosen places that we know are better endowed.”

The Builsa South MP blames the delay on the government’s inability to pay publishers and distributors for the books produced so far.

He added that the cap on GETfund makes it difficult to generate the needed revenue to undertake such projects, consequently resulting in a halt in the production and distribution of the books until the printers are paid for the services rendered.

Responding to the questions on what the Education Committee plans to do, he said the committee has consistently written to the Education Minister, yet very little has been done about the situation.

He, therefore, called on parents and teachers in particular to demand better accountability.

“We must now call on teachers and parents to rise up and call the government out for failing to fulfill its obligations to the good people of this country.”

“It is not right, it is not acceptable that four years down the line after the introduction of a new curriculum, teachers and headmasters and schools are still crying over lack of adequate textbooks,” he said.

In July 2022, a Deputy Minister of Education, Reverend John Ntim Fordjour, announced that the distribution of textbooks to all basic schools in the country was ongoing.

He explained that with the current state of affairs if all the printers comply with the timelines assigned to them, all regions and districts in the country would have their books in a few weeks.

The National President of the Conference of Heads of Basic Schools (CHOBS) has revealed that heads of basic schools now depend on loans and personal savings to operate over lack of capitation grants.

In an interview with Adom News, Addo Nicholas Nii Kpakpoe said the current situation has made it extremely difficult for heads of schools to undertake certain school activities.

Nii Kpakpoe revealed for seven terms now which sums up to two academic years, government has not given school heads their capitation grants which they use in running the affairs and activities in the schools.

Ironically, the Free SHS has gained notoriety in terms of getting the attention of the Ghana Education Service and the Ministry of Education in getting the challenges associated with it resolved, but the producer of the students for the second-cycle schools is dying and existing in the name because of delay in the release of capitation grant for effective running of the public basic schools.

Windowless and doorless structure with faded paint and a dusty rough surface floor are the traits of a producer for students for the much touted free Senior High School.

Why doorless and windowless, because the school lack funds for maintenance due to the delay in the release of the capitation grant, are the fate of othe schools.

That is the story of Tigare/Yesukrom D/A primary, Fantraline D/A Primary and JHS, Nzema Nkwanta M/A primary/JHS and Tikobo D/A primary, all in the Western North Region.

According to the teachers, the schools are running on credit and teachers’ benevolence due to the delay in the release of the capitation grant.

Sadly, at Sibi E.P Basic School in the Nkwanta North and Redeem M/A Basic School in the Nkwanta South, all in the Oti region, the story is no different from that of the Western North Region where the capitation is in arrears for two academic years.

This paints a nationwide picture of how broke and suffocating the basic schools are as there is no money for day-to-day administration.

This confirms SEND-Ghana mirror’s report on June 29, 2022, which revealed delays in the payment of capitation grants and other social protection programmes.

Send-Ghana, thus, called on the government to prioritise the allocation of adequate resources to sustain social protection programmes to prevent them from collapsing.

But, the call is yet to be heeded to by government.

As of the time of gathering the data for this story, it was revealed that, in one of the schools in the Greater Accra region, a heap of refuse had not been collected for the past three months due to the lack of funds to pay for the service.

In venting his frustrations, Nii Kpakpoe said “most of our colleagues run the schools by their money because just as the school has reopened, lesson notes, chalk, blackboard markers, have not been provided.

“I can’t also sit idle and say because it’s not coming to the school I wouldn’t run but rather as a leader you find a way in making sure things run smoothly and so most of our colleagues buy the items needed to support their schools with the view that capitation would be released and monies already used would be deducted from it.”

Nii Kpakpoe, as at the time of the interview, stated some district education offices had already received their calendar for sporting activities but there is no money to fund them.

He emphasised that the unavailability of capitation grants from the government is really affecting the quality of education at the basic school level because the teachers that can improvise are doing so instead of using real objects needed for teaching and learning.

The situation has forced the PTA to levy the pupils to pay for exams and sports fees so the school can conduct terminal examinations and also participate in inter-school competitions in the districts.

This levy contradicts the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) mantra.

Interestingly, the last payment for capitation grant was done on 24th March 2022 to cover arrears of the second term of the 2019/2020 academic year.

The General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Thomas Musah, bemoaned how the delay in the release of the capitation grant is crippling the activities and effective functioning of the schools.

This was corroborated by the President of the Coalition of Concerned Teachers, King Ali Awudu and Deputy General Secretary of the National Association of Graduates Teachers (NAGRAT), Rene Senyo Kwamikorkor, who lamented about how the foundation school has been neglected to the detriment of second-cycled education.

They retorted that if care and attention are not given to basic education, the country’s education will soon be on its knees.

“How do you do things upside down like the way Education is being handled in this country?” The Executive Director of EDUWATCH, Kofi Asare, queried.

He proposed that at least the Education Minister and the Ministry give 50% attention to the issues and challenges confronting Free SHS Policy.

In fact, our research on Educational Infrastructure painted same situation, the lamentations of the National Coordinator of Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC), Bernice Mpere-Gyekye.

GNECC has called for immediate action to address the situation to save the schools.

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According to the coalition, the reversal is the way it should have been, but the political expediency of the Free SHS, the foundation schools are being sacrificed for Secondary Education.

Full of frustration, Nii Kpakpoe said some headteachers who used their pockets money or borrowed some cash to run their schools in view of getting the capitation grant to repay have gone on retirement.

However, the stakeholders in education think that if the capitation grant is not being increased, the little that is due for the schools must be released on regular basis for the effective running of the schools.

They are of the view that a weak foundation school will lead to the collapse of the entire education in the country, hence the urgent attention by the Ghana Education Service and Ministry of Education in addressing the challenges affecting basic education in the country.

He noted that the lack of active supervision in public basic schools have resulted in highly qualified teachers not pulling their weight to ensure that students excel in their various subjects.

According to him, no matter how much money government pumps into public basic school education to improve the sector, if the structure of management and accountability in the schools does not change, “every money is going down the drain.”

“First of all, we have allowed the quality of our basic education to collapse in the public sector. It’s so sad. The teachers are not teaching. They’re qualified, far more qualified than we were – because mine was you first start serving and then you go for four years. These days they’re almost all graduates.

“I hear that from today, there will be no pupil teachers teaching. We were having pupil teachers teaching alongside with us and yet we were producing results far more and better. At this moment if you go to poor private schools, the people who are teaching there are secondary school dropouts but all their children are literate. But go to the public sector, the average person cannot read and write because the teachers have refused to teach and they’re being allowed to get away with murder,” he said on PM Express Personality Profile.

He said the main ingredient to improving education is public basic schools is by ensuring strict supervision.

“In teaching in my school, only three things matter; the supervision, that’s the authority of the head teacher supervising them insisting that teachers do teach and holding them accountable, these have been let go at the basic level and therefore, you can see it graphically in our school in my village.

“When they go to senior secondary schools nationwide, this is the year we’re celebrating that 60% passed, but do you know what even that means? And that is a good result, it means 40% failed and the average over the years is 50%. 50% passed and 50% failed. Any education system which produces 50% almost failures is in dire crisis.

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“But do you know why even the 50% passed? First, you always have some people god-talented and lucky, no matter what even if you put him in a hole. The rest, they have to pay for extra classes. The same teachers oo, they won’t teach them. It’s after the class and if you don’t go you’ll fail because they will tell you, they themselves will tell you if you don’t come you’ll fail and you’ll fail too. And this is the system we’re presiding over,” he bemoaned.

Prof. Adei said the government is spending enough money on education and not getting the right output.

“But the secret of changing it is not more money, simply and that’s my extreme revolutionary one, just give notice and sack all the teachers, period. Three months’ notice during long vacation ‘you’re no longer employed’, then ask people to apply for headship, head teachers and principals. Select quality ones, put them in the schools and pay them well, pay the principals and the head teacher about twice their salary because they’re so important and say that now you’re free to employ whoever you want to employ.

“I will give you the money, but you from today have the authority to discipline them and get the results. So if you don’t get the results, you the head teacher will be the one to be held responsible. Within one year, the quality of education will rise. That is my extreme remedy and the quickest way to improve education in Ghana,” he suggested.

He added that while he believes there is a need for the government to provide basic school supplies like classrooms, textbooks and the like, the lackadaisical attitude of teachers in the basic schools will make all investments in the sector come to naught.

“All the rest, not that I don’t believe in textbooks, classrooms, all those teacher education and all those things, but let me tell you unless we change the structure and the management and the accountability, every money is going down the drain. 

“But because our universities are limited, we will still get sufficient people who will pass, but we’re raising an army of dangerous, unemployable ones and one of these days, I may be gone but you may have your head rolled by the thieves whom you didn’t train,” he said.

The headmaster, who only gave his name as Agya Kojo in an interview on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem, they have been left to their fate with little or no support.

The heartbroken headmaster explained the woes of staff deepen each day as they crack their brains on how to solicit for funds in running the school.

Agya Kojo bemoaned their only form of funding which was through the Parent Teacher Association dues has also been cut off.

“The parents were helping the schools since the funds from government were not enough but in the second term of the 2018/19 academic year, the government directed all parents not to pay any money to the schools,” he said.

He noted the situation forced teachers to write exam questions on the board at that time since there was no exam printing fees.

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Agya Kojo said there have been times the schools took loans to fund operations and relied on contributions from teachers.

He maintained the Deputy Director General of Ghana Education Service was aware of their woes and despite the numerous stakeholders consultation, no result has been achieved.

Following a 10-month break from academic activities over the coronavirus pandemic, students are expected to be assessed through their class exercises and class tests.

This was announced in presser signed by Deputy Director-General of the GES, Dr Kwabena Bempah Tandoh, which said the current academic year is for recovery learning.

 “Following the reopening of schools for the 2021 academic year, management directed all Kindergarten to JHS students to participate in recovery learning.

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“Headteachers and teachers are to use class exercises and class tests to assess pupils,” the statement urged.

Basic school students from Kindergarten to Junior High School in the country went on a break in March 2020, and resumed on January 15, 2021, for the continuation of their academic year.