Education Ministry meets dev partners, beneficiaries
A two-day review meeting of the Ministry of Education to give account of funds provided by development partners for educational projects has opened in Accra.
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Development partners have, since 2013, provided a grant of $75.5 million under the Ghana Partnership for Education Grant (GPEG) towards educational improvement in 75 deprived districts across the country.
The funds were earmarked for educational projects at the district and the school levels, institutional strengthening, monitoring and evaluation of project activities, among others.
Speaking at the opening session, the Chief Director of the Ministry of Education, Mr Enoch Cobbinah, said so far, $60.476 million of the amount had been spent, leaving a balance of about $15.1 million.
He said the Ghana Education Service (GES), the implementing agency, had identified the 75 most deprived districts based on the Ghana District Level Poverty Indices, as well as educational indicators.
Component expenditure
Touching on the various components, Mr Cobbinah explained that the objective of the district grant was to provide annual non-salary resources for deprived districts as a supplement to existing resource flows to support districts’ annual programmes of work and government strategic priorities identified under the Educational Strategic Plan (ESP) and the Annual Educational Sector Operational Plan (AESOP).
He said GH¢63.416 had been released under the district-level grant component as of February 28, 2015.
The chief director said 622 school buildings had been rehabilitated, 68,131 pieces of furniture distributed among schools in those districts, while 114,451 and 7,037 assorted items were purchased and distributed as pupils and teachers’ incentives, respectively.
He said over 177,541 teaching and learning materials were purchased to improve teaching and learning in the beneficiary districts.
Training
Additionally, a number of in-service training programmes were conducted for teachers, as well as management training for headteachers.
Mr Cobbinah said GH¢12.527 million was spent on 6,865 untrained teachers who were supported from the 75 beneficiary districts to undertake a course leading to the award of Diploma in Basic Education.
He said GH¢9.13 million was also spent on programme management, institutional strengthening, as well as monitoring and evaluation of project activities.
Welcoming the participants, the acting Deputy Director-General of the GES, Ms Elizabeth De-Souza, expressed satisfaction that significant progress had been made, adding that the level of engagement, enthusiasm and commitment was very encouraging.
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