Spotlight on Ghana’s Education Sector:How did the Girls Education Unit performed 20 years down the line?

Education is key in guaranteeing a better future for children not only in Ghana but the whole worldwide.  Believed to be a major tool for eradicating poverty and preventing ignorance among citizens,education has played a significant role in shaping the lives of many people around the world.

Undoubtedly, Governments across the world have channeled a lot of resources into the education sector.  Both past and present governments have indeed shown great levels of commitment through continuous reinforcement of policies and programs to ensure equity and equality thrive in the education sector.  Former South African President, Nelson Mandela, rightly hit the nail on the head when he said “education is the most powerful tool that can be used to change the world”.  One of such policies government has established in 2010-2020 is the Education Strategic Plan (ESP), arguably one of the current tools designed to deal with the challenges facing education in general and in particular girls ‘education in the 21stCentury.

Some other policies being rolled out in the education sector include the School Feeding Program, distribution of “Free school uniform and exercise books”, the free compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) and the much talk about Free SHS policy, which is a new kid on the block recently launched barely a week ago now(September, 13 2017).

Though all these government initiatives continues to make impact, indications on the ground suggest that not much has been achieved in terms of the quality of pupils produced from the various educational institutions as well as the enrollment of girls in Senior High School, more especially the public ones.

For instance, majority of girls in deprived communities today still lives under worst forms of control denying them access to education despite the level of commitment being shown by government together with other key stakeholders both local and international including the level awareness being created.

The introduction of the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) policy which saw the establishment of the Girls’ Education Unit of the Ghana Education Service in 1997 in itself an intervention mandated by government to ensure the bridging of gender gaps in pre-tertiary education, be it, access, performance, completion and achievements.

Under the FCUBE policy all girls’ and boys are safe and sound in school to be taught by qualified teacher who understand their needs according to their individual potential so they can graduate, become productive and contribute their quota  to the society.

The policy among other things seeks to increase enrolment of girls in basic education to equal that of boys, develop and maintain strategies aimed at ensuring the continuation of girls from the basic to secondary education, develop programs to enhance the social capital of girls and strengthen effective coordination, capacity building, monitoring and evaluation of girls’ education. Some of the key strategies of the policy is to facilitate and advocate for the education of the girl child include advocacy for formulation of legislations, appropriate policies, in order to create “enabling environment” for actors, awareness creation and sensitization through community mobilization and stakeholder engagements, providing scholarships and bursaries schemes to girls and their vulnerable brothers; building capacity of stakeholders including school management committees; headteachers, students, parent-teacher association and civil society organizations among others.

However, twenty years down the line since its formation, the Girls Education Unit through its strategies and programmes has achieved a lot by contributing significantly to the progress and fortunes of Ghana’s educational sector. Below are some pointers to note down about the GEU:

       ACHIEVEMENTS

·         Increased enrolment of girls in basic schools to equal that of boys. Analysis of gender participation in education for 2015/2016 based on net enrolment rates (actual participation of boys and girls of school going age, following the population and housing census of 2010) show that in real terms the difference is only 1.3% in favour of boys. The national average for net enrollment is 50.3% representing 50.9% for boys and 49.6% for girls in 2015/2016.

·         Gender parity achieved at the primary school level in 2014/15 meeting the MDG 3A goal.

·         Female enrolment at Junior High School (JHS) level increased from six hundred eleven thousand two hundred and seventy-six (611,276) students in 2009/10 to seven hundred eight three thousand six hundred and thirty eight students (783,638) in 2015/2016 which represented an increase in the NER from 45.0% to 49%. The Gross Enrollment Rate (GER) has improved from 76.3% in 2009/12 to 86.7% in 2015/2016. The GER gender gap in favour of boys decreased from 6.2% in 2009/10 to 2.6% in 2015/2016.

·         Female access at the secondary school level has improved – Senior Highs School (SHS) also experienced an increase in enrolment from two hundred and forty thousand three hundred seventy eight (240,378) students to four hundred and forty thousand three hundred seventy eight (240,378) students to four hundred and ten thousand five hundred and thirteen (410,513) at Senior High School in the same period which represents an increase in the NER from 18.4% to 25.8% (EMIS, 2016).

·         Introduction and Expansion of Capitation Grant over the years

·         Scholarship scheme to support needy girls (in 2013/14 and 2014/2015, 60,000 eligible “needy” girls in 75 deprived districts were reached with scholarship packages).

·         Provision of bicycles to girls commuting long distances to school

·         Provision of food subsidies

·         Construction of water and sanitation facilities (separate toilets and urinals for girls). This has brought about gender friendly schools.

·         Provision of incentives to support female teachers who have been deployed into rural and deprived areas.

Education and Gender Equality

 Keeping with the tenets of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana and in compliance with the children’s act of 1998(Act 560), issues concerning children continue to receive attention and concerns of the government. However there are still barriers militating against efforts to get girls and their vulnerable brothers enrolled in school, remain in school, participate in education and achieve their potential. Some of the barriers include:



·         Abject poverty in certain part of the country

·         The presence of anti-girl socio-cultural practices,

·         Lack of direct private sector financial support for girls, especially at the pre-tertiary levels of education,

·         Poor quality of teaching and learning, parents unwillingness to allow their children to walk very long distances to school for safety reasons,

·         Absence of girl-friend school facilities in some schools and communities forcing girls to drop out of school during the adolescence age.


CHALLENGES

 There can never be success without challenges. Despite all the great achievements chalk by so far by the unit under the FCUBE policy, GEU has encountered some challenges which are identified below:

 Policies have not focused enough on gender in education to provide enabling environment for specific interventions though boys and girls, men and women are entitled to equal educational opportunities under the law. Some Cultural beliefs and practices as well as inadequate provision of educational facilities hinder the full participation of girls in formal education.

 Poverty: the greatest challenge for girls (and boys) in accessing education is poverty. Focusing on free education intervention and other targeted interventions are therefore critical.

Capacity Building across the GEU network has been ad-hoc and depended largely on donor programs plus inadequate funding of the Unit to effectively coordinate girls’ education activities across the districts and regions.

 Inadequate Early Childhood Care Development (ECDs) Centres in some schools hinder the campaign on age-appropriate enrolment and in some cases drive seasonal drop out among school-going girls who have to attend to their little siblings at home.

The way forward:

Going forward the Unit shall continue:

·         An on-going organizational and technical capacity assessment and enhancement building.

·         To facilitate increased coherence and cooperation across girl’s education programme streams and patterns in order to strengthen the girls’ education system

·         Finalization of draft Gender in Education Policy

·         Finalization drafts on Re-entry Policy and Guidelines and Standard of Procedure schooling and pregnancy.

·         To intensify advocacy, awareness creation, sensitization drives on girls’ education.

·         Operational researches with other partners in support of evidence building on girl’s education.


Recommendations:

·         Policy development that will enable girls (and boys) to access education and thrive at school.

·         Coherent and systematic capacity building of the GEU network to achieve results across the country including transport, communication resourcing.

·         Focus access and quality strategies on Free Senior High School

·         Funding allocation of at least 5% of GES non-salary non-recurrent budget to enable the Unit implement a national gender framework.

·         Creation of Directory for CSOs in education to strengthen coordination and collaboration for synergy and government engagement.

Conclusion:

The establishment of Girls’ Education Unit in 1997 marked a major step in the country’s commitment to ensuring the respect for the general principle of securing non-discriminatory environment and the reduction of Gender disparities in the education sector and significant development and achievement has taken place towards the improvement of education delivery and in the promotion of children’s rights.

 Simply put giving the overall performance of the Girls Education Unit (GEU) in terms of its achievements since inception twenty (20) years down the line, we could infer that it has performed creditably to see more girls enrolled in schools as compared to boys in equal proportion with support from gov’t and its stakeholders including some local and international NGOs in the country. But that in itself cannot be said to be complete since there is actually more gaps to cover as far as its objectives are concerned. It must be emphasized that great initiatives are always accompanied by challenges and if surmounted can lead to success which in the case of the GEU is no difference at all. It is therefore imperative that more interventions be channeled into the operations of the once vibrant Girls Education Unit to make it work to fruition.

I believe in so doing, it will require a lot from policy makers as well as the government and it stakeholders; both local and foreign to come on board with new policies, programs and interventions geared towards strengthening the girl child in every way possible to be enrolled into school to learn and progress in life. One of such good intervention government has established recently is the Free SHS policy which is believed to be a major boost to see more girls in school including their counterpart boys as well. The reason why the free SHS itself will be a big intervention for many girls to be in school is the fact that  most girls are able to make the good grades but due to poverty or lack of money, parents or guardians are not able to afford their fees therefore they are left unattended to which is the bane. For me that is the more reason why all and sundry ought to rally behind government to deliver successfully and sustainably on the program. Also more attention must be paid to the strategies being implemented by the GEU which is yielding positive result but lack expansion. It means more resources ought to be channeled into the interventions being utilized in such a way that more people can be reached especially the rural girls. The program also requires more awareness creation so that hard-to-reach communities especially where  most girls are still believed to be under some form of suppression which limit them  from getting access to secondary school education. Thirdly, there’s the need for policy makers are including government to enact clear-cut policy or guideline on gender and education in the absence of none which is a necessity including guidelines that seek to regulate re-entry of teenage mothers back to school.

In conclusion, the future may be very bright for all children especially girls with the support of the GEU  which is equally a contributor to Ghana  meeting  SDG goal 4 which among all other things seeks to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

 But that can only happen if the right resources are put in place by government and policy makers to facilitate the programs of the GEU and support the Unit in totality to achieve its objective.

Secondly, teachers must endeavor to play the role of parents in schools and be committed to the cause of promoting girls education in every way possible to encourage the enrollment of girls in both secondary and tertiary education as well.

In addition, there should be societal commitment by all to assist girls in communities who are not going to school to do so. In so doing, community leaders must endeavor to play a key role backed by the support of others to make way for unfortunate girls to access secondary education at all cost.

Finally, it will also behoove on traditional leaders like the Chief, Queen mothers and others to also do their bid in supporting the underprivileged girls in our society to go to school.

Writer:Joseph Kobla Wemakor