Education think tank, Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch), has appealed to corporate institutions to extend their support to the basic education sector.
With the cap on GETFund and the limitations on resources allocated to funding basic education infrastructure, resulting in desk deficits among other challenges, Eduwatch emphasizes the need to mobilize resources from corporate entities to safeguard the sector.
Speaking during a convening to discuss a corporate support framework for basic education infrastructure, Kofi Asare, the Executive Director of EDUWATCH, underscored the significance of the support emphasizing its role in complementing the ongoing initiatives of the government.
“The issue is that there are severe constraints on funds from local government in the area of desks in basic schools. In the midst of all this, we identify potential resources by way of corporate organizations in various districts that have an interest in education. The idea is that why don’t we call them together to contribute to a fund within a context of a framework which is accountable and led by cooperate entities there by we can say we are complementing that of the government efforts”.
A board member of EDUWATCH Dorothy Konadu indicated the need for corporate support to address the desks inadequacy in our public basic schools.
“While the government is supplying desks through the Ghana Education Trust Fund, the annual 15,000 witnessed in recent years is a drop in a bucket. We believe non-state actors must support. Collaboration between local assemblies, religious groups, Civil Society Organizations, and private sector institutions is critical if we are to address desk inadequacy in our public basic schools.”
The Chief Director of the Greater Accra Regional Council, Lilian Baeka, who delivered the keynote speech on behalf of the Chief Director of the office of the Head of Local Government (OHLGS) Service Felicia Dapaah, indicated the need for the support of the framework to “guide local governments to harness and manage with transparency and accountability, resources mobilized from the corporate sector to support education infrastructure provision at the local level”.
