Many children still out of School despite Government's interventions
Koforidua,Ghana -GNA
The Eastern Regional Multi sector committee on Children has expressed worry that despite the manyinterventions by government to enable all children to have access to education, many of them are still out of school in the region. The committee said with the implementation of the capitation grant, school feeding, free school uniforms and exercise books to public schools, no child should be prevented by any reason from going to school at least having basic education. Reports have shown that many children in the region between the ages of seven to 16 years and supposed to be in school are mostly found selling or doing menial jobs such as washing plates atbars, carrying loads at the markets and selling of goods ranging from water to coconut during class hours. The committee has therefore put a number of measures including sensitization durbars in the rural communities to create awareness among parents on the need to send their children to school. This came to light at the last quarter meeting of the members of the committee. Membership of the committee include representatives from the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit, Ghana Education Service (GES), Social Welfare, Department of Community Development, Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) and traditional authorities.
Mr Anthony Dontoh, the Regional Director of the Department of Children, said the committee over the years had noticed that many children were out of school and their preliminary investigations revealed parents, for no reason, prevented their children from going to school and rather made them to help them in the market or on the farms. He said the committee now had to liaise with the stakeholders to ensure that the right of all children to be in school is upheld for the realization of the Millennium Development Goals and urged members to report any child seen loitering during school hours for appropriate action.
Madam Patience Salu, a Programs Officer from the World Vision International (WVI), said in some communities there were empty classrooms whiles children who are supposed to go to school would be doing something else and stressed the need for parents to be interested in their wards education. She said the WVI had implemented many measures including community sensitization and awareness on the importance of education and even provided school materials to communities where the children were vulnerable to upscale the number of school enrolment in the communities.
Mr Kofi Adade Debrah, the Eastern Regional Coordinator of Plan Ghana, said many children in the basic schools had been offered scholarships to the tune of GHC 90,000 this year by the organization in the area to ensure that all children had access to education. He said that gesture was aimed at helping the government to meet
the MDG’s that required that every child by 2015 should have at least basic education and pledged to support the committee in its resolve to ensure that all children go to school.
CHRAJ wants government to increase capitation grant
Accra (GH) December 2011
The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) is recommending an increment in the capitation grant from next academic year.
CHRAJ is also calling on the government to ensure that the grants are released to the various schools in the country early enough “before the commencement of each school term”.
These recommendations were made at the climax of the 2011 Human Rights and Integrity week by Commissioner Lauretta Vivian Lamptey.
According to her, monitoring exercise conducted by the commission revealed that a large number of schools especially, basic schools in rural communities lack adequate teaching and learning materials notwithstanding the government’s Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education policy.
The exercise also revealed that despite government’s provision of the capitation grant, about 60% of schools monitored continue to charge fees to support their operations due to the inadequacy of the grant. This it says has resulted in a good number of Ghanaian children being out of school despite the free education at the basic level, a development she describes as “disturbing”.
“The continuous existent of non-school going children who are supposed to enjoy free basic education is disturbing. Of the 211 basic public schools inspected last year, to evaluate the disbursement of the capitation grant, the grant has improved funding support for the school; however, 60% of the schools monitored continue to charge fees to support their operation due to the inadequacy of the grant. Delays in release of the grant are seriously undermining the efficacy of the program”, the report stated.
It is in this regard that the commission is recommending an increase in the grant from the current amount to GHC7 per child from next year.
“The commission commends the government for increasing the capitation grant; however, in the view of the commission, this rate is still too low. We therefore recommend that the capitation grant be increased to GHC7 per child from 2012. Also we call on the government to release the grant to the schools before the commencement of each school term. The capitation grant should be administered in such a manner that will ensure all Ghanaian children benefit from high quality basic education”.
Touching on corporal punishment in the nation’s schools, Ms Lamptey called on the Ghana Education Service to put in place mechanisms to ensure strict supervision and compliance with its policy on corporal punishment in schools as reports are that some teachers are not respecting the GES policy on corporal punishment thereby injuring pupils and students.
Source: http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=225386