The Executive Director of the Institute for Education Studies (IFEST), Dr Peter Anti Partey, has urged the government to prioritise basic education, equitable resource allocation, skills development and accountability in its education spending as Ghana prepares for the presentation of the 2027 Budget.
Dr Partey, who is also a lecturer at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), believes the effectiveness of the government’s education policy should be measured not by the size of budgetary allocations but by the extent to which public investments address longstanding challenges and improve learning outcomes.
He has therefore called for a shift in the country’s approach to education financing, arguing that greater attention must be paid to how allocated resources are released, utilised and translated into tangible improvements across the education sector.
In outlining his expectations for the 2027 Education Budget, Dr Partey identified five key areas that should inform government spending priorities: adequate financing, equitable distribution of resources, investment in foundational learning, expenditure efficiency and accountability for results.
He cautioned that despite successive policy interventions, flagship programmes and increased budgetary commitments, fundamental weaknesses continue to affect access to quality education, educational equity and learning outcomes.
According to him, Ghana must critically examine whether its education financing strategy is driving meaningful transformation or simply sustaining an existing system without adequately addressing its structural deficiencies.
A major concern raised by Dr Partey is the level of attention given to basic education compared with secondary education in the country’s policy and financing priorities.
He argued that the foundations of effective learning are established during the early stages of a child’s education and that inadequate investment at this level could undermine the overall performance of the education system.
He noted that several basic schools continue to face challenges, including inadequate classrooms, insufficient furniture, limited access to textbooks and shortages of essential teaching and learning materials.
Against this background, he believes the 2027 Budget should demonstrate a deliberate commitment to strengthening basic education, particularly through increased investment in the resources required to improve foundational learning.
He maintained that addressing these deficiencies is critical to ensuring that children acquire the essential literacy, numeracy and other competencies needed for further education and lifelong learning.
Dr Partey has also questioned whether increases in nominal education allocations are translating into meaningful improvements in the financing and performance of the sector.
He explained that factors such as inflation, rising enrolment, delays in the release of funds and inefficiencies in public expenditure could erode the real value of government allocations.
He argued that an increase in the headline education budget should not automatically be interpreted as evidence of progress, particularly when the actual purchasing power of the allocations and their impact on learners are not adequately assessed.
He wants the government to pay closer attention to real expenditure trends, per-learner spending and measurable improvements in educational outcomes.
For him, the critical test is whether increased public investment is improving classroom conditions, strengthening teaching and learning, and enabling pupils and students to achieve better academic outcomes.
The persistent disparities in the distribution of educational resources between urban and rural communities are another issue Dr Partey believes should feature prominently in the 2027 Budget.
He observed that inequalities in teacher deployment, school infrastructure and access to teaching and learning materials continue to create significant differences in the quality of education available to children across the country.
He stressed that addressing these disparities would require more than across-the-board increases in education expenditure.
Instead, he advocated a financing framework that considers the specific needs of individual schools and the levels of deprivation within the communities they serve.
Such a needs-based approach, he believes, would enable disadvantaged schools to receive greater support and help reduce the inequalities that continue to undermine educational access and quality.
Dr Partey has further called for a more strategic approach to financing Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), warning that expanding enrolment without adequate investment in practical training could undermine the objectives of skills development.
He noted that increasing student numbers in TVET institutions must be accompanied by investments in well-equipped workshops, modern training equipment, practical instruction and stronger partnerships with industry.
Without these complementary investments, he cautioned, the country risks producing graduates with formal qualifications but without the practical competencies required by employers.
He therefore called for closer alignment between education financing, Ghana’s economic transformation priorities and the demands of the labour market.
According to him, public investment in skills development should equip young people with relevant competencies that improve their employability and enable them to contribute meaningfully to national development.
Dr Partey also identified the evaluation of previous education investments as a critical consideration for the 2027 Budget, questioning whether sufficient evidence exists to demonstrate the effectiveness of programmes implemented over the years.
He observed that Ghana has introduced several education policies, government programmes and donor-supported interventions, but argued that systematic monitoring, rigorous evaluation and the institutionalisation of successful initiatives remain inadequate.
He believes government must assess the performance of previous interventions before committing additional public resources to new initiatives.
This, he said, should involve identifying programmes that have delivered meaningful results, those that have failed to achieve their objectives and the lessons that should inform future policy and expenditure decisions.
He argued that a stronger evidence-based approach would help prevent the repeated introduction of programmes without adequate assessment of their effectiveness, sustainability and long-term impact.
In his broader assessment, Dr Partey maintained that the 2027 Education Budget should be more than a statement of government spending intentions. It must provide a credible financing strategy for addressing the structural weaknesses within Ghana’s education system.
He argued that the budget should demonstrate a clear commitment to improving foundational learning, correcting inequalities in resource distribution, strengthening skills development and ensuring that public expenditure delivers measurable results.
He further called for a departure from the traditional emphasis on headline allocations towards greater scrutiny of budget execution, expenditure efficiency and the actual impact of investments on schools and learners.
Ultimately, Dr Partey believes the success of the government’s education spending should not be determined by how much it promises to allocate to the sector but by how effectively those resources improve the learning experiences and future opportunities of Ghanaian children.
By 1960news.com
