Effective Delivery of Public Services: Focus on Education
October 2010
Prof. T B Wereko and Prof. Cletus Dordunoo
AfriMAP / Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA)
Ghana's progress in improving delivery of public services, including education, has been consistent with its achievements in consolidating democracy and respect for the rule of law since the restoration of civilian rule in 1992. The strong national focus on education, even during the periods of military rule, was maintained by the Kufuor administration, in office from 2001 to 2008, and enrolment rates at primary and secondary levels have increased at unprecedented rates. Yet Ghana remains behind in fulfilling the right to education, advanced in international treaties and its constitution, and may not achieve the Millennium Development Goal target of universal primary school completion by 2015.
This report examines some of the reasons for those shortfalls in the governance of the public education system in Ghana; the mundane support processes of statistics collection and utilisation, strategic planning and implementation, financial and resources management, human resources management and development and oversight of all these functions. Though two of the primary reasons for Ghana’s failure to achieve the best education delivery result, remains the lack of consistent policy implementation and the lack of funds, especially to provide critical resources and train and reward the staff needed to supply quality teaching. There are indications that much can be done to improve management of education policies and deployment of the funds that do exist. Improving those systems will, in turn, increase the confidence of those who are in a position to support increased budget allocations to the sector.
Even though development partner contributions to the national and discretionary budget remains relatively high, around 20% in recent years, their recorded share of the education budget is much less, declining to around 5.5% in 2007. Evidence in the field, however, points to a higher donor contribution to education, much of which is masked by the fact that many of such assistance to NGOs and CSOs are not planned for, or captured, in official documentation and returns are not publicly filed for analysis.
Perhaps the more valuable contribution by development partners is the extensive expert advice and qualitative inputs made through technical assistance and capacity building of various kinds, which go to enhance national and education sector capabilities on a more sustainable basis, especially from the DFID, UNESCO, and UNICEF. It is obvious that even if donor contributions in loans and grants are discontinued, for any reason, there will always be the need for their expert inputs, indispensable in keeping up the level of Ghana's education to international standards, for purposes of cross-border comparability and transferability of skills and knowledge within the global village.
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