A study conducted by African Education Watch, an educational civil society organization, reveals that the prospectus and other costs borne by parents are greater than the costs borne by the government under the free high school program. Became.
According to the report, the average government expenditure per student in boarding schools was GHS 1,147 and for full-time students GHS 1,107.
According to the report, in the 2021-2022 academic year, parents will spend GHS2,477 on boarding school ward prospectuses and an additional GHS4,000 on purchasing other personal items such as perfumes, detergents and sanitary napkins. It is said that GHS was spent. .
Divine Kupe, Senior Program Officer at Africa Education Watch, made the presentation during the Education Financing Conference in Accra.
The theme of the report was “The financial burden of free SHS policies and their impact on equitable access to education”.
Government-borne costs were analyzed using free SHS budget allocations and expenditures obtained from the Department of Education, Treasury, and Congress for the 2017-2018 to 2022-23 school years.
Costs to parents were analyzed using historical prices of prospectus items from the Ghanaian Bureau of Statistics.
According to the report, prospectus prices have increased by 38 percent from 36 percent during the initial implementation phase of the policy.
Mr Kpe said that parents of continuing students spend an average of CHF4,400 a year on their children’s education, of which 40% is on transport, 50% on breakfast and 10% on books.
The report also revealed that parents of day-time students spent GHS5,507, including prospectus fees, exceeding the government’s expenditure of GHS1,107.
The report revealed that 15% of candidates were not admitted for the 2022-2023 academic year due to financial constraints.
The school blamed the high cost of the prospectus and other study materials for not being able to gain admission.
The report suggests that in the medium to long term, the Ministry of Education will use data from the LEAP program to develop and implement strategies that focus on children from the poorest households, in order to minimize the cost burden of prospectuses. It is suggested that it is necessary.
This will allow the government to increase spending to cover the full cost of secondary education for students from low-income households, the report found.
The report recommended that the Ministry of Finance improve policy-based disbursements in line with objectives, implementation structure, and cash flow projections.
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