POLICIES AND STRATEGIES TO EXPAND EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND GIRLS’ EDUCATION IN GHANA

PAPER PRESENTED BY HON. ANGELINA BAIDEN-AMISSAH DEPUTY MINISTER IN CHARGE OF BASIC AND TEACHER EDUCATION AT THE UNGEI TECHNICAL MEETINGNOVEMBER 12, 2006

POLICIES AND STRATEGIES TO EXPAND EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND GIRLS’ EDUCATION IN GHANA

INTRODUCTION: Ghana has since 1951, and especially after independence in 1957, made significant strides in its education system. The system, as it is now, is the result of major policy initiatives in education adopted by both the present and past governments

Accelerated Development Plan for Education (ADPE) 1951; • The Education Act of 1961 • The New Structure and Content of Education 1974 • The Education Commission Report of 1986, (which led to the Education Reform Policy of 1987); • The Education Commission Report on Basic and Secondary Education 1987/88. • The Education Reform Programme 1987/88 • The Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education Programme, 1996. • The FCUBE Policy Document and Programme of Operations, 1996 LAWS, POLICY DOCUMENTS AND REPORTS

CONSTITUTIONAL REQUIREMENT • Article 38 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana requires Government to provide access to Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education, and depending on resource availability, to Senior Secondary, Technical and Tertiary education and life-long learning. • In recent times, the government’s commitment towards achieving her educational goals have been expressed in the following policy frameworks and reports

Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy 2002 – 2004 (GPRS, February 2002) • Education Sector Policy Review Report (ESPRR, August 2002) • Education Sector Review (ESR, October 2002) and the Government’s White Paper on the report (2003). • Meeting the Challenges of Education in the 21st Century. (The report of the President’s Commission on Review of Education Reforms in Ghana, ERRC, October 2002). • Education for All (EFA, UNESCO, Dakar, 2000) – international paper • The Education Strategic Plan (ESP) of 2003

KEY STRATEGIES IMPLEMENTED • Expansion of Capitation Grant • Scholarship Scheme to support needy girls • Provision of bicycles to girls commuting long distances to school • Provision of food subsidies • Community Mobilization on girls’ education. • Construction of water and sanitation facilities (separate toilets and urinals for girls). This is to bring about gender friendly schools. • School rehabilitation – (or construction of new classrooms). • Provision of incentives to female teachers to deploy them in rural and deprived area. • Provision of teaching learning Materials including textbooks, workbooks, etc • Provision of school furniture and other logistics

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS • The policy interventions and initiatives have not only helped in structurally transforming the education system but also improved considerably access, especially in the last three years. For instance, available statistics indicate that Total National Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) stands at 92.1% in 2005/2006 academic year. GER for girls for the same period is 88.8% while Gender Parity Index (GPI) is 0.95.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS (cont.) • Primary Net Enrolment Rates (NER) also increased over the period. For instance, NER increased from 59.1% in 2004/2005 to 69.2% in 2005/2006.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS (cont.) • Net Admission Rate (NAR) in primary schools also improved over the 2004/05 – 2005/06 period. NAR increased from 26.2% to 61.7% from 2004/2005 to 2005/2006, an increase of 135.5%.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS (cont.) • Access to schooling for children with disabilities and those with special Education needs has, since 2001/2002, seen steady increases. Figures for 2004/2005 represented a 40.5% increase (3,361 to 4,722) over those of 2001/2002.

CHALLENGES • In spite of these achievements, however, the Government of Ghana itself concedes that “although enrolment is increasing at all levels of education in Ghana, enrolment at primary level has not been increasing sufficiently to meet the goal of Universal Primary Completion by 2015”.

CHALLENGES (cont.) • Access to primary schooling remains the first obstacle to UPE. • A major barrier to achieving UPE by 2015 in Ghana is girls' lack of access to education. Combinations of cultural and socio-economic factors have been found to contribute to this disparity. In some areas families tend to favour boys over girls for entrance into school.

CHALLENGES (cont.) • The absence of early childhood interventions is also a factor in the provision of quality education, especially when older siblings may have to stay at home to care for younger children.

THE WAY FORWARD • To address some of the constraints to achieving UPE, the Government of Ghana, in 2004, came out with a white paper on education reform. With the reform, basic education will be expanded to include 2 years of Kindergarten as well as the existing 6 years of primary and 3 years of Junior High Schools.

THE WAY FORWARD (cont.) • The targets in the Education Strategic Plan (ESP), which were due to be achieved in Year 2015, are to be achieved earlier. • For instance, the Gross Admission Rate for entry into Primary One, which originally in the ESP was to reach 100% by 2010, is now to be achieved in 2006/2007.

THE WAY FORWARD (cont.) • Primary 6 Completion rate, which was to reach a level of 100% by 2015, is now to be achieved by 2012. • Gross Enrolment for Primary education is now scheduled to reach 107.4% by 2012, in order to achieve Universal Basic Completion by end 2015.

EXPANSION OF BASIC EDUCATION The government’s decision to expand Basic Education to include Early childhood education (ECD) is based on the recognition of the following:

EXPANSION OF BASIC EDUCATION (cont.) • ECD is the key to making children ready for a successful primary school experience, • ECD will, over time improve internal efficiency of the education system as a result of reduced repetitions and drop-out rates • ECD will result in increase of the number of children starting primary education when they are six years old (the official grade one age in Ghana).

EXPANSION OF BASIC EDUCATION (cont.) • It will also result in increased learning outcomes and opportunities for children to continue their education after primary education • Investment in ECD and pre-primary education is therefore also a sound economic investment as it reduces the costs per child to complete a full primary cycle and has a high rate of return. • It is expected that ECD will help to “liberate” older siblings, especially girls, to go to school instead of looking after younger children.

EXPANSION OF BASIC EDUCATION (cont.) • They can help parents broaden their aspiration for girls and better perceive the capabilities of their girl child, increase the girl child's motivation and self-expectation through early learning programmes and thus increase the probability for girls' enrolment and retention in primary school. • Alternate and accessible quality childcare programmes such as pre-schools (crèche, or kindergarten or pre-primary) can relieve the girl child from the responsibility of caring for her younger siblings, and thus will allow her to attend school.

EXPANSION OF BASIC EDUCATION (cont.) • If children enroll at the official kindergarten age of 4 years they are likely to enroll at the right age of 6 years in Primary school and also complete the full cycle before the age when most girls drop out. • Finally, ECD programmes can provide positive role models of fathers' participation in the promotion of their girl child's right to development, participation and learning

STRATEGIES FOR EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION OF ECD PROGRAMMES COUNTRY-WIDE • The establishment of a multi-sectoral team to design and monitor ECD programmes. • Development of the curriculum for kindergarten 1 & 2 • Introduction of Capitation Grant to public schools in the country. • Introduction of the School Feeding Programmes in selected schools to improve the nutritional needs of school children.

STRATEGIES (cont.) • Development of Guidelines for establishing Early Childhood Development Centres • The development of psychosocial Manual for teachers at the preschool and primary levels. • Development of Early Learning standards and indicators of Development for 4-5 year olds.

STRATEGIES (cont.) • All 20,000 kindergarten teachers in public schools have been oriented on the new curriculum.

CAPACITY BUILDING PROGRAMME FOR KINDERGARTEN TEACHERS • As part of capacity building programme for kindergarten teachers, the University of Education in Winneba has, since 2005, been training students in early childhood care and development. The new curriculum has also been integrated into the curriculum of Teacher Training Colleges to ensure that enough qualified teachers are produced for the KG sector.

GENDER DISPARITY • There is persisting gender disparity in spite of its constitutional guarantees and commitment to achieve the MDGs, girls still lag behind boys in Ghanaian education system. • For the academic year 2002/2003, the national Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) at primary level was 81.3% with figures of 84.6% and 78.0% respectively for boys and girls, making primary Gender Parity Index (GPI) of 0.92. • Gender disparity widens slightly at junior secondary school level. The national GER at JSS level was 67.1% with figures of 71.7% and 62.4% for boys and girls, making GPI of 0.87.

GENDER DISPARITY (cont.) • The indication is that at least 22% of the girls of school going age are denied their rights to primary education. The Junior Secondary is worse, about 40% of the girls are not having this right fulfilled. • gender disparity is greater in regions that are low in the league table. For example, primary girls GER of the Northern Region for 2002/2003 was 59.5% while National GER for girls was 78.0%.

GENDER DISPARITY (cont.) • At the JSS level, the GER for girls in the northern region (within the same academic year was 33.2% (national GER was 62.4%). • GPI of the Northern Region at primary and JSS levels are also challenging – 0.78 and 0.65 respectively (national GPIs were 0.92 and 0.87).

MAJOR INSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGES • The historic rise in enrolment figures pose a number of emerging challenges such as high Pupil-teacher ratios, large classes, etc; • There is debate within the Education sector over how to fund KG education, especially given the push for increasing primary enrolment. In 2005, 4 per cent of the total expenditure of the Education sector was directed to KG education.

MAJOR INSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGES (cont.) • Weak infrastructural base of ECD at both national and district levels. • Weak capacity of personnel to implement ECD programmes. This problem is compounded by irregular training due sometimes to the absence of skilled trainers and funds. • Inadequate community involvement in ECD programmes. Where the government initiates a project, communities do not often contribute much to its operation.

MAJOR INSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGES (cont.) • Shortage of School Facilities such as Classrooms and logistics. • Long Distances and Natural Impediments to Schools: This problem is very common especially in rural areas. • Disease Burden of School Children: Some of the common diseases that afflict school children are malaria, pneumonia, diarrhea, guinea worm, etc

MAJOR INSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGES (cont.) • Insufficient Trained Teachers: Trained teachers are not available in adequate numbers. Trained teachers, and particularly female trained teachers who act as key role models to young girls, are not adequately deployed in rural areas. • Unintended Exclusion of Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC): Orphans and vulnerable children with disabilities are not properly enabled to participate in the education system. • Inadequate funding for ECD/Pre-school activities: Budgetary support for Pre-school activities has been woefully inadequate.

THE WAY FORWARDALTERNATIVE POLICY OPTIONS A combination of strategies will need to be adopted and implemented if MDG2 is to be achieved in Ghana. These would include the following:

THE WAY FORWARD (cont.) • Reaching the vulnerable and excluded • Strong government commitment, backed by a strategic vision and policy framework for the Education sector that has the support of other key ministries like Finance, Local Government, and Women and Children’s Affairs

THE WAY FORWARD (cont.) • The establishment of inclusive, effective partnerships, domestic and international, which will help to build a strong constituency for education. This should be Government-led. • More predictable flows of aid from both government and main funding agencies which will enable the Government to improve planning and implementation. Timely, flexible donor support is a critical factor.

THE WAY FORWARD (cont.) • Maintaining the political commitment to further increase budgetary allocation to the education sector as a whole and primary schooling especially, leading to a rise in the share of primary education and real per-pupil spending • Addressing concerns of parents with regard to what motivates them to send their children to school, and how to keep them there.

THE WAY FORWARD (cont.) • Mainstreaming gender equalitythrough the development of all policies, strategies and institutional practices to ensure that boys and girls are accorded equal opportunity. • Strengthening Decentralizationfor the management of schools, and for the spending of at least some resources, to the local level, including by school managers. Also, strengthening the capacity of institutions for planning, management, monitoring and accountability

THE WAY FORWARD (cont.) • Ensuring the access and inclusion of all children • Improving quality of education • Taking action on emerging issues like HIV/AIDS, child trafficking and child labour.

THANK YOU

POLICIES AND STRATEGIES TO EXPAND EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND GIRLS’ EDUCATION IN GHANA