Gov’t to spend GH¢2.8bn on secondary infrastructure as Education Minister pushes foundational learning

The Ghanaian government plans to allocate $2.8 billion from the US$300 million STARR-J facility to infrastructure development aimed at increasing access to secondary education nationwide. The Ministry of Education will utilize the funds for quality assurance and textbook provision. Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu has instructed his team to ensure the procurement process is transparent and competitive.

Addressing the Ghana and Regional Foundational Learning Evidence and Implementation Support Day, the Minister emphasized the need to prioritize foundational learning, specifically literacy and numeracy, as a gateway to educational success. He stressed that education outcomes should be measured by students acquiring expected competencies, not solely by the infrastructure provided.

An Auditor General's report highlighted that approximately 10,700 public basic schools across 13 regions, serving over three million pupils, lack classrooms. The Minister stressed the urgency of addressing this issue, given Ghana's constitutional guarantee of free, compulsory, and universal basic education. He also highlighted the importance of evidence-driven education policy, citing the Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP), which targets low-performing basic schools for additional resources and technical support.

The Minister announced that Ghana's revised curriculum from kindergarten to Primary Six will incorporate digital and technical skills, including robotics, coding, electronics, and artificial intelligence. The revised curriculum, which the Ghana Education Service will review, will be presented to Cabinet for policy guidance.