report - Ministry of Education

Transcription

REPUBLIC OF GHANA
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION
EDUCATION SECTOR PERFORMANCE
REPORT
AUGUST 2013
Ministry of Education, 2013
Table of Contents
List of tables and figures........................................................................................................ 4
List of acronyms .................................................................................................................... 7
Executive Summary............................................................................................................... 9
1
2
3
INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 14
1.1
Structure of the Report .......................................................................................... 14
1.2
Data and reporting................................................................................................. 15
1.3
Monitoring of Aide Memoire Activities from 2012 ................................................... 19
BASIC EDUCATION .................................................................................................... 24
2.1
Access .................................................................................................................. 26
2.2
Gender .................................................................................................................. 37
2.3
Quality ................................................................................................................... 40
SECOND CYCLE EDUCATION ................................................................................... 54
3.1
Senior High School................................................................................................ 56
Access ............................................................................................................................. 56
Gender............................................................................................................................. 59
Quality ............................................................................................................................. 61
3.2
Technical and Vocational Institutes ....................................................................... 66
Access ............................................................................................................................. 66
Gender............................................................................................................................. 67
Quality ............................................................................................................................. 67
4
INCLUSIVE AND SPECIAL EDUCATION .................................................................... 69
4.1
Inclusive Education – Mainstreaming .................................................................... 70
Education Sector Performance Report, 2013
2
4.2
5
6
7
8
Special Schools and Units ..................................................................................... 71
NON-FORMAL EDUCATION ....................................................................................... 73
5.1
Non-formal Education Division .............................................................................. 74
5.2
Distance learning and open schooling ................................................................... 75
5.3
COTVET ............................................................................................................... 76
TERTIARY EDUCATION.............................................................................................. 78
6.1
Access .................................................................................................................. 79
6.2
Quality ................................................................................................................... 82
EDUCATION MANAGEMENT ...................................................................................... 84
7.1
EMIS ..................................................................................................................... 85
7.2
Decentralised management of pre-tertiary education ............................................ 85
7.3
Teacher Absenteeism ........................................................................................... 87
7.4
Ghana Partnership for Education Grant ................................................................. 91
7.5
Education Sector Working Group – donor mapping exercise ................................. 92
EDUCATION FINANCE................................................................................................ 95
8.1
Trends in Education Expenditure ........................................................................... 96
8.2
GoG Expenditure 2012 ........................................................................................ 100
8.3
Expenditure from other sources........................................................................... 102
8.4
Unit Cost Analysis ............................................................................................... 103
REFERENCES .................................................................................................................. 105
Glossary of education indicators ........................................................................................ 106
3
List of tables and figures
Tables
Chapter 1 - Introduction
Table 1.
Number of schools captured in the EMIS schools census
Chapter 2 – Basic Education
Table 2.
Kindergarten Schools - number
Table 3.
Kindergarten enrolment statistics
Table 4.
Primary Schools - number
Table 5.
Primary enrolment statistics
Table 6.
JHS Schools - number
Table 7.
JHS enrolment statistics
Table 8.
Repetition rates in Basic Education
Table 9.
Enrolment in private education in basic schools
Table 10.
Enrolment in first year, private and public schools
Table 11.
Gross Enrolment Ratios and Gender Parity Indices in basic education
Table 12.
Key Targets for Quality of Education
Table 13.
Distribution of national BECE results by subject, 2012
Table 14.
BECE ‘above average’ rates by deprived and non-deprived districts, 2012
Table 15.
Completion rates at Primary and JHS
Table 16.
Numbers of teachers in basic education (public and private schools)
Table 17.
Teachers indicators in public basic schools, by level
Table 18.
Regions with the highest and lowest percentages of trained teachers in public
basic schools
Table 19.
Teacher distribution at the basic level, using maximum and minimum PTRs,
2012/13
Table 20.
Teacher statistics for public and private schools, 2012/13
Table 21.
Core textbooks per pupil, public basic schools
Table 22.
Pupil to classroom ratios in public basic schools
Table 23.
Pupil to seating place ratios in public basic schools
Table 24.
Progress of Schools under Trees projects, at January 2013
Chapter 3 – Second Cycle Education
Table 25.
Gross enrolment ratios in second cycle education
Table 26.
Number of senior high schools by type
Table 27.
SHS enrolment statistics
Table 28.
Gender equality indicators at SHS
Table 29.
WASSCE Examination pass rates by subject and gender, 2012
Table 30.
WASSCE Examination pass rates by region and subject, 2012
Table 31.
Completion rates – data comparisons
Table 32.
Indicators of quality at SHS public schools
Table 33.
Teacher statistics, public and private SHS schools
Table 34.
Institutions and enrolment in TVET, 2011/12 and 2012/13
Table 35.
Enrolment statistics for TVET, 2012/13
Table 36.
Female enrolment in TVET, 2011/12 and 2012/13
Table 37.
Teachers in TVET institutions, 2011/12 and 2012/13
4
Chapter 4 – Inclusive and Special Education
Table 38.
Enrolment of children with special educational needs in mainstream schools
Table 39.
Children enrolled in special schools
Table 40.
Enrolment in special schools by type of school, 2012/13
Chapter 5 – Non-formal Education
Table 41.
Learners enrolled in NFLP by Year and Gender
Table 42.
Learner enrolment in local language literacy NFLP, 2012, by region and
gender
Table 43.
National Apprenticeship Programme by region, 2012
Chapter 6 – Tertiary Education
Table 44.
Progress against ESP 2010-2020 targets for Tertiary Education
Table 45.
Number of public and private tertiary institutions, 2010/11 and 2011/12
Table 46.
Enrolment in tertiary education, by year
Table 47.
Student enrolment for distance learning by institutions, 2007/08 – 2011/12
Table 48.
Enrolment in Science and Technical Programmes, by year
Chapter 7 – Education Management
Table 49.
Districts submitting SRC data, May 2013
Table 50.
Teacher attendance at the district level (41 deprived districts)
Table 51.
Top 5 and bottom 5 districts' teacher attendance rates, by level of education
Table 52.
Districts’ Annual Programmes of Work – allocation of funds by pillar
Table 53.
Districts’ Annual Programmes of Work – allocation of funds by level of
education
Chapter 8 - Education Finance
Table 54.
Trends in Education Resource Envelope and Expenditure as a share of GDP
and Total Public Spending (GH¢)
Table 55.
Trends in expenditure by level of education
Table 56.
Education resource envelope and item expenditure 2012
Table 57.
Expenditure by Level of Education and Item 2012
Table 58.
GoG Expenditure by level of Education and item, 2012
Table 59.
GoG Budget Execution Rate 2012
Table 60.
Expenditure by level of Education from other sources, 2012
Table 61.
Unit costs by level of Education
Figures
Chapter 1 - Introduction
Figure 1.
Population estimates for 2010 and 2011, using the 2000 census and 2010
census
Figure 2.
Basic gross enrolment ratios using the 2000 and 2010 census population
projections
Figure 3.
National population estimates for age zero to 18 years, 2010 PHC
Figure 4.
Allocation of newly trained teachers by region, 2012
Chapter 2 – Basic Education
Figure 5.
Kindergarten enrolment ratios – data comparisons
Figure 6.
KG Gross and Net Enrolment Ratio by region, 2012/13
Figure 7.
Enrolment by grade in KG
5
Figure 8.
Figure 9.
Figure 10.
Figure 11.
Figure 12.
Figure 13.
Figure 14.
Figure 15.
Figure 16.
Figure 17.
Figure 18.
Figure 19.
Figure 20.
Figure 21.
Figure 22.
Figure 23.
Figure 24.
Figure 25.
Figure 26.
Figure 27.
Primary enrolment ratios – data comparisons
Primary Gross and Net Enrolment Ratio by region, 2012/13
Enrolment in Primary by grade
JHS enrolment ratios – data comparisons
JHS Gross and Net Enrolment Ratio by region, 2012/13
Enrolment by grade in JHS
Retention rates in Primary and JHS education
Gender parity index at basic level – data comparisons
Gender Parity Index at basic education by region, 2012/13
Distribution of BECE results by gender (Female F, Male M), 2012
Maths BECE results by gender, 2012
Distribution of English BECE results by region, 2012
Distribution of English BECE results for deprived and non-deprived districts,
2012
Completion rates - data comparisons
Pupil-teacher ratios in public basic schools
Pupil-to-trained-teacher ratios in public basic schools, by region
Numbers of surplus teachers in public basic schools in 2012/13, using ESP
2010-20 PTR targets
Numbers of surplus teachers in public basic schools in 2012/13,
Core textbook to pupil ratios over time
Core textbook to pupil ratios in public basic schools, by region
Chapter 3 – Second Cycle Education
Figure 28.
Number of senior high schools by region, 2012/13
Figure 29.
SHS enrolment ratios – data comparisons
Figure 30.
SHS placement: students presented, qualifying and placed in SHS, 2008 to
2012
Figure 31.
Enrolment by grade at SHS
Figure 32.
Gender Parity Index at SHS – data comparisons
Figure 33.
Completion rates at SHS – data comparisons
Figure 34.
WASSCE pass rates by subject, 2006 to 2012
Figure 35.
Distribution of WASSCE scores across schools: proportion of schools’
candidates who qualify for tertiary education
Figure 36.
Distribution of those students who qualify for tertiary education across schools
Chapter 6 – Tertiary Education
Figure 37.
Female enrolment in public tertiary institutions
Figure 38.
Highest qualification of full time teaching staff in tertiary institutions, 2011/12
Chapter 8 - Education Finance
Figure 39.
Proportion of total expenditure by level of education
Figure 40.
Expenditure by item, 2012
Figure 41.
GOG budget execution rate for 2011 and 2012
Figure 42.
Annual percentage change in unit cost
6
List of acronyms
ABFA
ADPR
APTI
APW
AUDEM
BECE
CBT
CENDLOS
CHASS
CoE
COTVET
DANIDA
DfID
EMIS
ESP
ESPR
FGER
GAR
GER
GES
GETfund
GEU
GH¢
GIMPA
GIZ
GNAT
GoG
GPEF
GPEG
GPI
GSFP
GSS
GSTDP
HIPC
HIV/AIDS
IE
INSET
ISE
JHS
JICA
KG
KOICA
MDRI
MGER
MoE
MoFEP
NAB
Annual Budget Funding Amount
Annual District Performance Report
Association of Principals of Technical Institutions
Annual Programme of Work
Advisory Unit of Decentralised Education Management
Basic Education Certificate Examination
Competency Based Training
Centre for National Distance Learning and Open Schooling
Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools
College of Education
Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training
Danish Development Agency
Department for International Development
Education Management Information System
Education Strategic Plan
Education Sector Performance Report
Female Gross Enrolment Ratio
Gross Admission Ratio
Gross Enrolment Ratio
Ghana Education Service
Ghana Education Trust Fund
Girls Education Unit
Ghana Cedis
Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration
German Development Corporation
Ghana National Association of Teachers
Government of Ghana
Global Partnership for Education Fund
Ghana Partnership for Education Grant
Gender Parity Index
Ghana School Feeding Programme
Ghana Statistical Service
Ghana Skills and Technology Development Project
Highly Indebted Poor Country
Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
Inclusive Education
In-service education and training
Inclusive and Special Education
Junior High School
Japan International Cooperation Agency
Kindergarten
Korea International Cooperation Agency
Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative
Male Gross Enrolment Ratio
Ministry of Education
Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning
National Accreditation Board
7
NAP
NAR
NCTE
NEA
NER
NFED
NFLP
NVTI
ORELT
PASS
PHC
PHD
PTR
PTTR
SDF
SHS
SMC
SpED
SRIMPR
STDs
SWG
TVI
UNESCO
UNICEF
USAID
UTDBE
WAEC
WASSCE
WEL
WFP
National Apprenticeship Programme
Net Admission Ratio
National Council for Tertiary Education
National Education Assessment
Net Enrolment Ratio
Non-formal Education Division
National Functional Literacy Programme
National Vocational Training Institute
Open Resource for English Language Teaching
Participatory Approach to Student Success
Population and Housing Census
Doctor of Philosophy
Pupil-teacher ratio
Pupil-trained teacher ratio
Skills Development Fund
Senior High School
School Management Committee
Special Education Division
Statistics, Research, Information Management and Public Relations
Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Sector Working Group
Technical and Vocational Institute
United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organisation
United Nations Children’s Fund
United States Agency for International Development
Untrained Teacher Diploma in Basic Education
West African Examinations Council
West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination
Workplace Experience Learning
World Food Programme
8
Executive Summary
This report reviews the performance of the Education sector in Ghana over the year 2012/13.
It refers to progress achieved since the previous National Education Sector Annual Review
(May 2012) and makes use of the most recent data, including the report of the 2012/13
annual school census under the Education Management Information System (EMIS).
This Performance Report is the first to make use of the statistics from the 2010 Population
and Housing Census (PHC) for the 2012/13 indicators. The statistics and projections from
the 2010 PHC show some differences are difference from the 2000 PHC. This has
implications for education indicators such as enrolment and completion rates. As a result,
care must be taken when looking at the trends in indicators that employ population statistics
as the denominator. In order to present and understand a fair analysis of the progress in
education, the 2010 and 2011 indicators have been re-calculated using the 2010 PHC and
are shown in charts in this document.
A review of progress of last year’s Aide Memoire activities shows that some progress has
been made on the recommendations. These include (i) the Complementary Basic Education
policy, (ii) the School Report Cards, (iii) data analysis training and planning workshops to
improve districts’ alignment of budgets with national priorities (v) the issue of allowing BECE
candidates to re sit exams has been resolved to some extent, in that junior high school
graduates who wish to resit will have go back to their schools to register.
Basic Education
Progress has been made in increasing access across the levels of basic education, with all
enrolment indicators improving in 2012/13. As the sector hits the peak of enrolling all children
of school age, it is important to note that increasing effort in terms of interventions will be
required to achieve relatively little. In the light of this, pragmatic strategies become very
important. In this endeavour, accessing the last out-of-school children may be increasingly
difficult and the indicators become very sensitive to the expansion of coverage of private
schools in the census and to the accuracy of the underlying population projections. However,
the number of out-of-school children has witnessed impressive reductions. The MICS 20062011 report showed that the number of out-of-school children (aged 6 to 11) fell by 46% from
513,000 in 2006 to 278,000 in 2011.
Gross enrolment numbers and ratios for Basic Education
2008/9+
2009/10+
2010/11+
2011/12+
2012/13
KG
1,338,454
1,440,732
1,491,450
1,543,314
1,604,505
Primary
3,710,647
3,809,258
3,962,779
4,062,026
4,105,913
JHS
GER
1,285,277
2008/9+
1,301,940
2009/10+
1,335,400
2010/11+
1,385,367
2011/12+
1,452,585
2012/13
KG
92.9
97.3
98.4
99.4
113.8
Primary
94.9
94.9
96.4
96.5
105.0
JHS
80.6
79.5
79.6
80.6
82.2
Enrolment
9
+
2008/9 to 2011/12 use the 2000 PHC population estimates.2012/13 use the 2010 PHC.
Private provision of basic schooling continues to increase, with first year admissions to
private schools growing faster than to public schools. This could, however, reflect the
increasing coverage of private schools in the annual school census.
Gender parity has been surpassed in KG, representing a higher proportion of girls than boys
in school for the 4 to 5 year-old age group. Gender parity is almost achieved at the Primary
level, with a GPI of 0.99, and there is still a way to go for JHS where the GPI is 0.93.
BECE results show that boys performed better than girls in all core subjects except English,
where the reverse is true. At the regional level, Greater Accra and Ashanti tend to have the
highest performance, with Upper East, Northern and Upper West having high numbers of
below average students.
Completion rates increased at both Primary and JHS, now at 112.4 and 70.1 respectively. 1
The drive to increase the share of trained teachers is showing results, with the numbers of
trained teachers growing at all three levels, the percentage of teachers who are trained
increasing, and also the pupil to trained teacher ratio falling across basic public schools.
Pupil to teacher ratios also reduced this year (indicating fewer pupils per teacher), which
could suggest an inefficient use of resources (teachers) if there are more teachers than
considered optimal.
The number of core textbooks per pupil stands at 1.2 and 0.9 for Primary and JHS public
schools respectively, still some way off the target of 3.
Progress has been made regarding the ratios of classrooms and seating places to pupils at
all three levels of basic public schools, thus improving the facilities for pupils to aid learning.
Second Cycle
Upon completion of Junior high schools, graduates have the opportunity to transit into senior
high schools or technical and vocational education training institutes.
The number of students enrolled in senior high schools increased in 2012, although the rate
of increase is less than the population projection leading to a slight reduction in the gross
enrolment ratio from 37.1 to 36.8.
The proportion of SHS students who are female increased to 45.9%, but the gender parity
index remains low at 0.86. The completion rate for males is almost 6 percentage points
higher than for females.
1
Further studies are required to review the current calculation of completion rates. Ghana uses a standardised
approach to calculation as used by many countries, though Ghana must endeavour to make a case for
consideration at the international level (through education forums in Africa and beyond)
10
WASSCE pass rates improved in 2012 compared with 2011 in all the subjects except for
English, where the results fell. The pass rate was higher for males than for females in each
of the four core subjects.
A number of indicators of teaching quality showed a worsening situation in 2012/13. In public
SHS schools the pupil-teacher ratio and pupil to trained teacher ratios decreased in 2012/13,
suggesting that there are more teachers available in schools. However the proportion of SHS
teachers who are trained decreased by 0.5 percentage points to 86.9%. The number of
textbooks per pupil fell for English (0.66), Maths (0.67) and Science textbooks (0.63).
The 45 Technical and Vocational Institutions under the GES has 36,830 students enrolled in
2012/13. Overall enrolment in TVET decreased by 1.3% from the previous year, but this may
be due to inconsistent coverage of institutions.
GES TVET institutions have highly qualified teachers, where 94.8% have a technical
qualification and 80.9% are trained as teachers.
The gross enrolment ratio decreased in second cycle education as a whole (SHS and TVET)
when compared with 2011 (see the table below). However, this is likely due to the upwards
adjustment in the population estimate used for 2012/13.
Enrolment
2011/12+
2012/13
SHS
758,468
842,587
TVET
62,303
61,496
Total
820,771
904,212
2,044,848
2,291,267
GER*
2011/12
2012/13
SHS
37.1
36.8
TVET*
3.0
2.7
Population 15-18
Total
40.1
39.5
+
2011/12 uses the 2000 PHC population estimates.2012/13 uses the 2010 PHC.
*The GER is based on the population of 15 to 18 year olds, although TVET courses are
usually three years whereas SHS is four years.
The Education Strategic Plan has a strategic goal to provide education for excluded children
... by including them, wherever possible, within the mainstream formal system or, only when
considered necessary, within special units or schools. As part of this, the policy of Inclusive
Education places children with mild and moderate disabilities in mainstream public schools.
Since the end of 2011, the Inclusive Education programme has expanded from 29 districts in
seven regions to 46 districts in all ten regions. In 2012/13 the number of pupils in mainstream
basic schools recorded as having special educational needs fell by 16%. This could likely be
due to inconsistencies in recording the number of children with special needs.
11
Children with severe and profound disabilities are enrolled in segregated special schools or
special units attached to mainstream schools. The number of students enrolled in special
schools in 2012/13 was 6,180, a decrease from 6,432 the year before. This decrease could
be due to difficulties in capturing enrolment data from all the special schools in Ghana.
Non-Formal Education
In 2012 the National Functional Literacy Programme, led by Non-Formal Education Division,
established 2,056 classes under Batch 18. This accounted for 51,257 learners, of which 64%
are female, demonstrating the sector’s commitment to particularly target women.
The National Apprenticeship Programme (NAP), led by the Council for Technical and
Vocational Education and Training, grew from 1,600 apprentices in 2011 to 5,000 in 2012 in
the trade areas of Garments, Cosmetology, Electronics, and Auto Mechanics.
Tertiary Education
The National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) continued to expand access to quality
tertiary education in 2012. Enrolment in public universities decreased from 115,452 in
2010/11 to 109,278 in 2011/12. However enrolment in the polytechnics, Colleges of
Education and private tertiary institutions increased.
The proportion of students enrolled in science and technical programmes has increased in
both public universities and polytechnics, now standing at 39.1% in these institutions
combined.
Education Management
A technical review of EMIS carried out in 2012 found critical issues regarding the strengths,
weakness, opportunities and threats of the EMIS Data management system. A
recommendation of the report has led to development of a dedicated webpage for the EMIS
database. The page allows users to download raw data and ready-to-use tables.
The GES is reviewing and building the capacity for decentralised management. Training on
reporting requirements and analysis is being provided, and recommendations are being
considered to further improve district reporting. The three new bodies to strengthen
decentralised management are at various levels of progress, with the National Inspectorate
Board more advanced than the National Teaching Council or National Council on Curriculum
and Assessment.
Teacher absenteeism continues to be a strong obstacle to quality teaching and learning in
Ghana, particularly in public basic schools. The School Report Cards now being rolled out
with district-level software will allow schools and districts to better monitor schools’ progress
in aspects including teacher attendance. A preliminary analysis of data from 41 deprived
districts in the first term of 2012/13 showed on average a teacher attendance rate of 80%.
The Ghana Education Sector Working Group was successful in its application to the Global
Partnership for Education Fund in 2012, establishing the Ghana Partnership for Education
Grant (GPEG). GPEG is a three year grant for US$75.5 million, implemented by the Ghana
Education Service in 57 deprived districts in eight out of ten regions. The project
12
development objective is to improve the planning, monitoring and delivery of basic education
services in the deprived districts of Ghana.
In March 2013 an exercise was carried out to map the interventions of the key donors on the
Education Sector Working Group. Donor activity was found to cover the priority areas of the
Education Strategic Plan, to be directed either at specific districts (often deprived) or at
national level management and no duplication was found.
Education Finance
Spending on education continued its increasing trend in 2012, with a total expenditure of
GH¢ 6.0billion in 2012, up from GH¢ 3.6billion in 2011. In 2012 education expenditure was
equal to 8.4% of GDP. The largest source of funding is the Government of Ghana (76% of all
funds), however of this 97% is allocated to compensation, leading to heavy reliance on other
sources to pay for goods and services and assets, which make up 21% and 5% of total
expenditure respectively.
Whilst all levels of education saw an increase in expenditure between 2011 and 2012, subsectors which saw a substantial increase in share of the total spending were pre-primary,
JHS and SHS. Primary level education had a notable decrease in its proportion of spending,
from 34.6% to 25.9%, however in absolute terms its spending increased.
There was an overrun in GoG expenditure from the allocated budget in all items of spending:
compensation, goods and services and assets. The execution rate of expenditure against
budget was particularly high for assets at 2,412%. This was largely accounted for by the
reallocation of planned expenditure from GETfund into GoG funds, particularly for Schools
Under Trees and SHS infrastructure.
Analysis of unit costs showed that costs per pupil increased for all levels of education
between 2011 and 2012. The largest increase was in Pre-Primary (KG and crèche), which
increased by 327% in 2012. Unit costs increase as the level of education increases, from
GH¢ 341 per pupil in Pre-Primary up to GH¢ 2,693 in Tertiary (2011 expenditure).
13

1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Structure of the Report
The report is structured to reflect the Education Strategic Plan 2010-2020. The introduction
continues with a description of the data sources and intricacies of the EMIS data for 2012/13,
particularly due to the new population figures and re-classification of the deprived districts. It
also reviews progress on priority activities included in the Aide Memoire from the 2012
National Education Sector Annual Review.
Chapter 2 covers Basic Education, organized along the core priorities of Access, Gender and
Quality of education. Basic Education includes KG, Primary and JHS schools.
Second Cycle Education is the focus of Chapter 3, also looking at Access, Equity and
Quality. Here, the chapter is divided according to the different types of second cycle
education: senior high schools and technical vocational education and training.
Chapter 4 provides an overview of delivery of Inclusive and Special Education, which
operates as part of pre-tertiary education.2 This includes mainstreaming children with mild to
moderate special needs in mainstream schools, and providing special schools and units for
children with severe disabilities.
Non-formal education is covered in Chapter 5. The Non-Formal Education division continued
with the National Functional Literacy Programme in 2012/3; open and distance learning was
expanded by CENDLOS; and COTVET continued the National Apprenticeship Programme.
Chapter 6 focuses on tertiary education, looking at enrolment and numbers of institutions in
both public and private tertiary institutions.
Improving education management is a major priority for the sector, and this is covered in
Chapter 7. There are a number of activities being carried out to strengthen education
management at the national and decentralized levels, including the use of the EMIS and the
three-year Ghana Partnership for Education Grant. This Chapter also details activities of the
donor partners in the Education Sector Working Group.
Chapter 8 provides a summary of the education sector’s finances in 2012.
A list of references is provided after Chapter 8, and is followed by a Glossary explaining how
the education indicators are calculated in this report.
2
Inclusive and Special Education is treated as a focal area to indicate the importance the sector attaches to
responding to the needs of perons with special educational needs
14
1.2 Data and reporting
The data presented in this report was the most recently available as at April and May 2013.
For Basic and Secondary schools, the majority of data comes from the EMIS annual school
census, and BECE and WASSCE data come from WAEC. Data on other Agencies/Divisions
have come from reports of the respective Agencies. Results from the 2011 Multiple Indicator
Cluster Survey (MICS) carried out between September and December 2011 are referred to
for further detail on access and out-of-school children (UNICEF, 2013).
The numbers of basic and senior high schools responding to the EMIS census are given in
Table 1 below. For public schools it is assumed to be a 100% response rate, but we do not
know the coverage rate for private schools.
Table 1.
Number of schools captured in the EMIS schools census
Kindergarten
2008-09
2009-10
2010-11
2011-12
2012-13
Public
11,827
12,481
13,263
13,505
13,305
% change 2011/12
to 2012/13
-1.5%
Private
4,612
4,990
5,538
5,410
5,972
10.4%
Total
16,439
17,471
18,801
18,915
19,277
Primary
2008-09
2009-10
2010-11
2011-12
2012-13
Public
13,510
13,835
14,431
14,360
14,112
1.9%
% change 2011/12
to 2012/13
-1.7%
Private
4,371
4,722
5,292
5,473
5,742
4.9%
Total
17,881
18,579
19,723
19,833
19,854
JHS
2008-09
2009-10
2010-11
2011-12
2012-13
Public
7,656
7,969
8,462
8,336
8,818
0.1%
% change 2011/12
to 2012/13
5.8%
Private
2,557
2,799
3,247
3,231
3,618
12.0%
Total
Senior High
schools
Public
10,213
10,768
11,709
11,567
12,436
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
493
496
511
515
535
7.5%
% change 2011/12
to 2012/13
3.9%
Private
177
201
209
242
293
21.1%
Total
670
697
720
757
828
9.4%
New population data
This report makes use of the 2010 census data for the first time. Up until 2012, the Ministry of
Education was using population projections based on the 2000 census, using the national
annual growth rate of 2.7 percent (Ghana Statistical Service). The GSS carried out the
National Population and Housing Census in 2010 (PHC). The results of the 2010 PHC its
respective estimated annual growth rates show some differences from the 2000 PHC. This
has presented the sector with some challenges in the calculation of sector indicators that use
the population as denominator (e.g. enrolment ratios and completion rates).
Figure 1 below shows the population estimates for a selection of school-going ages. It shows
the population estimates for 2010 and 2011 using the old (2000) and new (2010) census
15
projections. The Education Sector Performance Reports for 2011 and 2012 used these old
projections (2010 and 2011 data)3.
Figure 1. Population estimates for 2010 and 2011, using the 2000 census and 2010
census
The bars labelled ‘old’ are using the 2000 census, and these estimates were used in the
EMIS data for 2010/11 and 2011/12. The bars labelled ‘new’ are using the 2010 census.
The indicators for 2012/13 onwards will use 2010 census projections. Throughout this report
Figures are shown which include the indicators reported in previous ESPRs, using the 2000
census projections. However to allow fair comparison with recent trend, the indicators have
been recalculated for 2010/11 and 2011/12 using the 2010 PHC. Figure 2 below
demonstrates this. The block lines are the indicators calculated using the 2000 census
projections and as reported in previous years. The dashed lines show the indicators recalculated using the 2010 census projections, and include the 2012/13 indicator results.
3
Thus the trend in previous performance reports will be different from the ones that employed the 2010 PHC
data sets. For the younger age groups, those aged 6 to 12, the previous projections were in fact an over-estimate
of population. For children aged 12 and over, we start to see that the projections were not so far off. As the ages
increase we find that we had in fact been under-estimating the population.
16
Figure 2. Basic gross enrolment ratios using the 2000 and 2010 census population
projections
Conforming with the population projections in Figure 1, Figure 2 shows that at KG, the 2010
PHC data significantly increases the GER as the population estimate has fallen. This also
happens at Primary, though less dramatically. If the 2010/11 and 2011/12 indicators were not
recalculated and shown here, it would appear that GER increased considerably in 2012/13
for KG and Primary. In fact, the Primary GER fell slightly this year.
At JHS, where the population estimates were less far off, the GER barely changes using the
new data, and in fact was found to be over-estimated in 2010/11 as the JHS population
turned out to be higher than the 2000 census projections estimated.
The effect of the 2010 PHC data can be seen when looking at district-level net enrolment
ratios. By definition, the NER should not go above 100. However, in 2012/13 at KG there are
44 districts with an NER above 100, and at Primary 40 districts have NERs above 100.
Limitations with the 2010 PHC data
The 2010 PHC data shows very volatile numbers in each year of age, with a significant peak
of ten year-olds, as seen in Figure 3. Care must be taken with considering indicators which
use an age group of just one year, such as admission rates (e.g. Primary gross admission
rate uses the population of six year-olds as the denominator) or completion rates (e.g.
primary completion rate uses the population of 11 year-olds). This problem is reduced when
taking the population of a wide group (such as six to 11 year-olds in the Primary GER). The
SRIMPR Division of MoE is investigating with GSS the possibility for smoothing out the data
across ages.
17
Figure 3. National population estimates for age zero to 18 years, 2010 PHC
Source: SRIMPR, MoE; originally from GSS
Another issue with the data relates to projections. An annual growth rate is applied to each
age– shifting the graph up rather than along. This means that there will always be a spike of
ten year-olds and a dip in 11 year-olds, rather than the spike of ten year-olds becoming 11
next year, then 12 the year after and so on. This can be seen in the lines for 2011 and 2012
in Figure 3 above. Again, the EMIS team are discussing this with the GSS.
Deprived Districts
The Ministry of Education has operated with the concept of deprived districts in one form or
other since 2004. In response to recommendations in previous annual reviews, in 2012 the
criteria for deprived districts was reviewed and updated. The new criteria include both
Ghana's poverty index4 (share of population below the poverty line) as well as education
indicators. The education indicators are:






4
retention in primary education (enrolment in P6/enrolment in P1 based on all
schools),
retention in the basic cycle (enrolment in JHS3/enrolment in P1 based on all schools),
share of girls enrolled in P6 (all schools),
share of girls enrolled in JHS3 (all schools),
pass rate in BECE English, and
share of trained teachers in the public primary schools.
Based on district-level poverty index, 2003
18
The bottom third (57) of the districts, ranked according to the criteria listed above, are used
as the deprived districts throughout this report, making this the first year the ESPR has used
the new deprived districts definition. Indicators for 2011/12 have been calculated for the new
set of 57 deprived districts, using the 2011 population projection (from the 2010 census), in
order to compare 2012/13 indicators with the year before.
1.3 Monitoring of Aide Memoire Activities from 2012
The National Education Sector Annual Review 2012 culminated in the signing of an Aide
Memoire between the Ministry of Education and development partners which sets out priority
activities for the coming year. A review of progress of these activities is given below,
categorized by the thematic areas of the ESP.
Basic education
I.




II.



III.




Implementation of the Complementary Basic Education (CBE) policy
The CBE policy was reviewed and shared at a policy workshop in February 2013.
The final policy is due to be launched in the coming months.
DFID has approved and hired a management consultant in collaboration with GES to
implement the CBE to target the first 120,000 out-of-school children.
A CBE management team, in collaboration with the GES and MoE, has reviewed and
confirmed proposals of ten implementing partners for CBE.
A steering committee has been established and has commenced operations.
Ensure completion of School Report Cards (SRCs)
The School Report Card data capture format template and software for data entry
were updated.
In 2012/13 SRCs were rolled out in the 57 deprived districts. This consisted of
installation of the software and training for district personnel in each of the district
offices. The circuit supervisors were trained to assist head teachers in completing the
SRC data capture format template. All public basic schools in the deprived districts
were administered the SRC template, and returned them completed to the districts.
Districts then generated electronic SRCs to be returned to schools, and a collated
report which was sent to GES Headquarters.
Initial monitoring visits to schools and districts in May 2013 implied that heads,
assistant head teachers and teaching staff were well informed about the use of the
SRC in preparing the School Performance Improvement Plan and monitoring
progress at the school level.
Strengthen and review School Based Assessment (SBA)
The common framework for the School Based Assessment (SBA) was reviewed and
finalized in 2012.
The SBA has been budgeted for but no funds have been released for the training of
District Education personnel to mainstream the assessment model.
UNICEF supported the Curriculum Research and Development Division to carry out
training of Trainers in the 30 districts across the country where UNICEF operates.
In order to improve educational accountability the Assessment Services Unit (ASU) is
planning to develop standardized tests for each grade level to be used to assess the
level of achievement of pupils at the end of an academic year. However, nonavailability of funds is the key challenge. ASU has recommended that part of the
GETFund should be allocated for assessment so that assessment activities will be
19
carried out on time, allowing a timely release of results which can improve teaching
and learning.
IV.



Improve teacher capacity and pupil learning achievement in literacy
This activity was specifically linked to reviewing the Maths and Science modules of
the Untrained Teacher Diploma in Basic Education.
A consultant was hired to work with Teacher Education Division for this review. The
first year modules have been completed and already distributed to the current cohort
of UTDBE students.
Second, third and fourth year modules are scheduled to be reviewed in the coming
months.
Secondary education
V.



VI.




Provide a more flexible placement system to allow more students to seek a
second chance
This activity suggested exploring the possibility of letting pupils transfer results and
re-sit the BECE at any school.
Because Continuous Assessment Scores (CASS) form part of the total scores used
for the grading of candidates at the BECE, candidates who intend to re-sit the
examination have to register with their former schools.
WAEC note that until the policy of the use of CASS and the Stanine grading system
for BECE are reviewed, candidates will have to continue to re-sit for the examination
with their former schools.
Improve teaching of Science and Mathematics
This activity was specifically to provide Science and Maths INSET training for SHS
teachers, and increase the coverage of science camps.
In the year to now, 83 more schools were provided with science supplies for teaching
and learning.
In May 2013 a four-week INSET was provided for 186 science teachers and 63
laboratory technicians from 62 SHS.
Science items, training manuals and the training programme have been repackaged
to correspond more with the SHS science curriculum and examination syllabus.
Non-formal education
VII.

Development of Non-Formal Education (NFE) policy
The Mass Literacy and Social Change Programme Policy Document (MASSLIP,
1989) was reviewed and revised. The new draft was presented to Regional
Coordinators in a senior management meeting.
VIII.


Reverse negative attitude of public towards the disabled
This activity was to undertake a sensitisation campaign to raise awareness of
education issues for students with special educational needs.
SpED have Special Education Officers in the Regional and District Education Offices.
These officers attend parent-teacher association meetings at schools in order to
sensitise parents and schools in the needs of children with special needs. SpED have
20
also sought to address public awareness by sending officers to churches and by
appearing on GTV to discuss issues of special needs.
21
IX.

Expand Inclusive Education programme
Since July 2012, the Inclusive Education programme has been expanded to 12 new
districts with the support of UNICEF. This means the Inclusive Education Programme
has now reached 46 districts spread across all ten regions.
Tertiary Education
X.

National Output Based research fund under NCTE
The research fund has been established with seed funding of two million cedis from
the GETFund.
XI.
Promote the use of new technologies in teaching and learning
NCTE will be using the success stories from the TALIF (Teaching and Learning
Innovation Fund) to improve the pedagogy of lecturers at universities.

Education Management
XII.


XIII.


XIV.



XV.

Teacher Professional Development Policy approved and implementation plan
developed
The pre-tertiary teacher professional development plan, and its associated
implementation plan, has been approved by the GES management, and GES
Council.
The plan was launched by the Minister in June 2013.
Provide training for EMIS officers. Provide training in data analysis at the
district level for Statistics Officers and Directors in non deprived districts.
As happens every year, training was conducted by SRIMPR for all scheduled offices
of 170 districts. Frequent staff turnover at the district officers and movement between
roles in the office continue to present challenge to the upgrading of officers’ skills.
Additional training on data analysis for the non-deprived districts and the new districts
has not yet been possible.
Ensure budget priorities are in line with national policy priorities
This activity was included to ensure that districts’ operational plans (ADEOPs) and
budgets are aligned with national policies.
Led by the Advisory Unit of Decentralised Education Management (AUDEM) in the
GES, a consortium of trainers was organised to implement the comprehensive
training programme on District Education Operational Planning and Performance
Review (DEOPPR). The consortium includes resource persons from CEPS, GIMPA,
IEPA, NCRIBE. Training was carried out in March and May 2013.
District annual plans have been evaluated and found to be aligned with national
priorities in the education strategic plan.
Review study leave data and investigate distance learning opportunities to
replace study leave
A review of data sets from the Human Resource Management Division (HRMD) of the
GES indicates that majority of the teachers on study leave return for re-posting.
However, whether the current teachers in the field are adequate is another question.
An analysis of pupil-teacher ratios for KG, Primary and Junior High schools against
22


XVI.



the minimum and maximum norms, as in section 2.3, reveals that public school
teacher vacancies require a review. The Ministry could make efficiency savings if the
PTR norm is adhered to. This will reduce the wage bill considerably.
Data also indicate that as at 2012, the numbers of staff in management at the GES
head quarters, Regional offices and district offices require a review to ensure
efficiency savings.
There are currently viable alternatives to supporting fulltime teachers on study leave.
Resorting to the use of distance programmes will not only reduce the wage bill but
also ensure that the teachers are available in the class to teach whilst at the same
time pursuing further studies. This is being considered by NCTE.
Enhance availability of teacher deployment data
HRMD hold data on the deployment of teachers after graduating in the pre-service
Diploma in Basic Education from the Colleges of Education.
Teachers are allocated by GES headquarters to the regional offices, based on the
vacancies notified and requested. These in turn depend on the vacancies reported by
districts, and in turn by head teachers.
In 2012; 8,781 newly trained teachers were deployed into schools in Ghana. Their
allocation by region is given below.
Figure 4. Allocation of newly trained teachers by region, 2012
XVII.



Ensure smooth roll out of GIFMIS system
The GIFMIS secretariat of the education sector has been established and is located
in the Ministry.
The secretariat received GIFMIS training from the Controller and Accountant
General’s Department. This is being rolled out to the Ministry’s agencies through onthe-job training.
It is expected that the Ministry’s agencies, including regions and districts, will have
their own GIFMIS secretariats in future.
23
2 BASIC EDUCATION
Summary
Progress has been made in increasing access across the levels of basic education, with all
enrolment indicators improving in 2012/13. As the sector hits the peak of enrolling all children
of school age, it is important to note that increasing effort in terms of interventions will be
required to achieve relatively little. In the light of this, pragmatic strategies become very
important. In this endeavour, accessing the last out-of-school children may be increasingly
difficult and the indicators become very sensitive to the expansion of coverage of private
schools in the census and to the accuracy of the underlying population projections. However,
the number of out-of-school children has witnessed impressive reductions. The MICS 20062011 report showed that the number of out-of-school children (aged 6 to 11) fell by 46% from
513,000 in 2006 to 278,000 in 2011.
Private provision of basic schooling continues to increase, with first year admissions to
private schools growing faster than to public schools. This could, however, reflect the
increasing coverage of private schools in the annual school census.
Gender parity has been surpassed in KG, representing a higher proportion of girls than boys
in school for the 4 to 5 year-old age group. Gender parity is almost achieved at the Primary
level, with a GPI of 0.99, and there is still a way to go for JHS where the GPI is 0.93.
BECE results show that boys performed better than girls in all core subjects except English,
where the reverse is true. At the regional level, Greater Accra and Ashanti tend to have the
highest performance, with Upper East, Northern and Upper West having high numbers of
below average students.
Completion rates increased at both Primary and JHS, now at 112.4 and 70.1 respectively. 5
The drive to increase the share of trained teachers is showing results, with the numbers of
trained teachers growing at all three levels, the percentage of teachers who are trained
increasing, and also the pupil to trained teacher ratio falling across basic public schools.
Pupil to teacher ratios also reduced this year (indicating fewer pupils per teacher), which
could suggest an inefficient use of resources (teachers) if there are more teachers than
considered optimal.
The number of core textbooks per pupil stands at 1.2 and 0.9 for Primary and JHS public
schools respectively, still some way off the target of 3.
Progress has been made regarding the ratios of classrooms and seating places to pupils at
all three levels of basic public schools, thus improving the facilities for pupils to aid learning.
5
Further studies are required to review the current calculation of completion rates. Ghana uses a standardised
approach to calculation as used by many countries, though Ghana must endeavour to make a case for
consideration at the international level (through education forums in Africa and beyond)
24
Key activities carried out by the Ghana Education Service in Basic Education this year
include:








1,658,084 free school uniforms and 32,400,000 exercise books were distributed to
needy pupils;
5,467,808 basic school pupils benefitted from the capitation grant;
26,915 girls received food rations and 179,900 pupils benefitted from the feeding
programme;
The Girls PASS Programme, a USD 9.2 million grant aimed at providing scholarships
to 55,000 girls was inaugurated.
GES and DFID reached an agreement to collaborate and reach 150,000 out of
school children and provide complimentary basic education.
376,859 candidates received the subsidy allowing them to sit the BECE;
Teacher upgrading continued through In-service and Competency based training, as
well as enrolling 12,900 untrained teachers on the Untrained Teachers Diploma in
Basic Education (UTDBE) programme.
32,000 children from 42 districts benefitted from the Teacher Community Assistant
Initiative (TCAI) programme.
25
2.1 Access
KG
The number of kindergarten schools increased from 18,915 to 19,277 in 2012/13 (see Table
2). However, this was mostly due to an increase in the number of private KGs, which offset a
fall in the number of public KGs. The number of public KGs fell by 200, which could be due to
factors such as combining two schools (e.g. A and B schools), and cleaning the data.
Table 2.
Kindergarten Schools - number
Kindergarten
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
Public
11,827
12,481
13,263
13,505
13,305
Private
4,612
4,990
5,538
5,410
5,972
Total
16,439
17,471
18,801
18,915
19,277
Enrolment numbers in KG increased in line with recent trends, adding around 61,191 pupils
on 2011/12 and now standing at 1.6 million (Table 3).
The GER increased to 113.8 in 2012/13. Official age enrolment also continued to increase,
giving an NER of 74.8. Results from the 2011 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS)
shows that 38% of pre-school attendance is children aged six years and over, meaning they
are over the appropriate age for KG (UNICEF, 2013).
Table 3.
Kindergarten enrolment statistics
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
KG GER
92.9
97.3
98.4
99.4
KG NER
63.6
58.7
60.1
64.2
Deprived Dist*
2011 /12
2012 /13
113.8
109.6
111.6
74.8
73.3
75.6
Enrol. KG
1,338,454 1,440,732 1,491,450 1,543,314 1,604,505
448,307
Enrol KG
916,455
869,552
911,305
996,232
1,054,967
299,816
(4-5 yr)
* NB 2011/12 Deprived districts indicators are calculated using the 2010 PHC data.
468,412
317,060
Figure 5 shows that in re-calculating the previous two years’ enrolment ratios for using the
2010 PHC data, the enrolment rates for those two years (2010/11 and 2011/12) were found
to be higher. In addition, 2012/13 did still see an increase on the previous year.
Deprived districts in 2012/13 have a lower gross but higher net enrolment ratio for KG than at
the national level, at 111.6 and 75.6 respectively. This implies that formal and particularly
public schooling through KG education is more patronized in the deprived communities whilst
private or home delivery of KG increases in the urban centres. As with the national level,
deprived districts saw an increase in GER and NER in 2012/13.
26
Figure 5. Kindergarten enrolment ratios – data comparisons
Gross and net enrolment ratios at KG vary widely amongst regions, as shown in Figure 6.
Western Region and Brong Ahafo both have a GER above 140, and the highest NERs at 102
for Western and 88 for Brong Ahafo. (In fact the NER should not go above 100, so this
demonstrates the caution that must be taken with the new population data.) Greater Accra
has by far the lowest GER (66) and NER (44), most likely due to a tendency for parents in
this region to find private childcare arrangements for their children before sending them to
Primary.
Figure 6. KG Gross and Net Enrolment Ratio by region, 2012/13
Figure 7 shows that enrolment in each grade has been increasing over the last five years.
However the number of pupils enrolled in KG1 has remained almost 200,000 higher than
those in KG2, showing the substantial drop-out between the two year groups.
27
Figure 7. Enrolment by grade in KG
In 2012 the GES developed an operational plan for scaling up quality KG. The plan lays
emphasis on activity-based, child-centred and child-led learning. The top priority is to train
the existing KG teachers and assistants in the new vision and pedagogy for KG, as well as
the newly trained Early Childhood Education teachers coming from Colleges of Education
and universities. Whilst the focus is on quality, access plays a part too, with plans to increase
public awareness of the need for age-appropriate KG, learning materials and resources,
establishment of National KG Standards, and a strategy for identifying and providing for
children with special needs.
Primary
The number of primary schools increased only marginally to now total 19,854, continuing last
year’s trend of a fall in the number of public primary schools but an offsetting increase in
private schools (Table 4). The fall in public schools is due to a number of factors including
the move away from shift systems, combining two schools (such as A and B schools) and
cleaning any duplicates from the data.
Table 4.
Primary Schools - number
Primary
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
Public
13,510
13,835
14,431
14,360
14,112
Private
4,371
4,722
5,292
5,473
5,742
Total
17,881
18,579
19,723
19,833
19,854
Looking at enrolment ratios alone, it appears that increasing access has continued with great
success in 2012/13 as both the gross and net enrolment ratios have increased (105 and 84.1
28
respectively) (Table 5). However, the actual numbers enrolled show that appropriate age
enrolment has fallen on 2011/12. The abrupt increase in GER and NER reflect the sharply
reduced population data for 6 to 11 year olds. Figure 8 shows that when accounting for the
new population estimates, the GER and NER actually fell slightly in 2012/13.
MICS 2006-2011 data presents a longer trend analysis, which shows that between 2006 and
2011 the number of six to eleven year olds who were out of school (not currently attending
school) decreased by 46%, from 513,000 to 278,000 (UNICEF 2013b).
Admission into primary 1 sees a similar trend to overall enrolment ratios. The admission
ratios increase on the previous year, both for total admission (107.8) and admission of 6-year
olds (79.3). However, Figure 8 shows that when accounting for the adjustment to population
data, the admission ratios actually fell on the year before.
Table 5.
Primary enrolment statistics
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
Primary GER
94.9
94.9
96.4
96.5
Primary NER
88.5
83.6
77.8
Primary GAR
102.9
101.3
Primary NAR
Enrol.
Primary
Enrol Primary
(6-11yr)
72.1
Deprived Districts
2011/12
2012/13
105.0
100.9
98.8
81.7
84.1
85.3
81.1
99.6
97.8
107.8
112.8
107.7
71.1
71.0
71.0
79.3
81.2
79.3
3,710,647
3,809,258
3,962,779
4,062,026
4,105,913
1,078,321
1,082,973
3,461,087
3,356,743
3,201,541
3,439,573
3,286,472
911,139
888,935
Figure 8. Primary enrolment ratios – data comparisons
The MICS 2011 data shows that by the age of 10 about 90% of children have entered
primary school, and this figure climbs to about 95% by age 14. This result strongly suggests
29
that most children in the country now have access to a primary school, and the percentage of
truly excluded children (and communities) continues to decline.
Enrolment ratios are lower for deprived districts than for the national level, and saw a
decrease in 2012/13 as compared with 2011/12.
The GER varies by region between 118 in Western Region down to 93 in Greater Accra, and
NER follows a similar pattern. It could be that the lower levels of access in Greater Accra are
due to the greater opportunity cost of education – there are opportunities for children to gain
at least informal employment outside or unpaid within the home within the vicinity of Accra.
Figure 9. Primary Gross and Net Enrolment Ratio by region, 2012/13
As would be expected, the numbers enrolled in each grade of Primary decrease as the
grades get higher. This is shown in Figure 10. However we can also see that the gap
between grades has been closing over time, with far more pupils enrolled in P6 in 2012/13
(almost 600,000) than in 2008/9 (around 500,000).
30
Figure 10. Enrolment in Primary by grade
JHS
The number of JHS schools increased in 2012/13, both public and private, bringing the total
to 12,436 (Table 6).
Table 6.
JHS
JHS Schools - number
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
Public
7,656
7,969
8,462
8,336
8,818
Private
2,557
2,799
3,247
3,231
3,618
Total
10,213
10,768
11,709
11,567
12,436
The growth in enrolment seen in recent years continued, as did the increase in appropriate
age enrolment (Table 7). The new population estimates for children aged 12 to 14 are very
similar to the old estimates, so the GER and NER are little-changed, now at 82.2 and 47.8
respectively.
First year admission ratios appear to have fallen in 2012/13, giving a GAR of 86.4 compared
with 88.1 last year. The population estimate for 12-year olds has decreased using the 2010
census data. This means that calculating admission ratios with the new population data
shows they were lower than originally reported. In 2012/13 first year admission numbers
increased. As a result this raised the gross admission ratio slightly (using the new population
data). However, appropriate age admission (NAR) fell slightly even when the new population
data is accounted for, to 41.0.
31
The deprived districts have poorer access indicators, with the GER 13 percentage points
lower than the national level at 68.9 (compared with 82.2). Between 2011/12 and 2012/13
deprived districts saw improvements in gross enrolment and admission ratios, but falls in net
ratios, suggesting that those who are not aged 12 to 14 are enrolling at a faster rate than
those who are 12 to 14.
Table 7.
JHS enrolment statistics
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
JHS GER
80.6
79.5
79.6
80.6
JHS NER
47.8
47.5
46.1
JHS GAR
84.6
86.6
JHS NAR
Transition
to JH1
Enrol. JHS
Enrol JHS
(12-14yr)
43.6
Deprived districts
2011/12
2012/13
82.2
67.4
68.9
46.1
47.8
35.4
34.8
86.3
88.1
86.4
65.7
67.5
43.8
43.9
44.5
41.0
30.2
27.2
-
94.6
92.4
89.5
94.5
-
83.5
1,285,277
1,301,940
1,335,400
1,385,367
1,452,585
287,753
301,870
762,898
778,855
772,979
792,491
844,835
151,245
152,606
Figure 11. JHS enrolment ratios – data comparisons
At the regional level, the GER ranges from 89.7 in Greater Accra down to 72.6 in Northern
Region (see Figure 12). At NER, the three northern regions have the lowest indicators, with
an NER of only 32.8 in Upper East. This is quite a reversal from the pattern in KG and
Primary, where the northern regions appeared to have relatively good enrolment ratios and
Greater Accra was consistently having the poorest performance. One possible explanation is
that some parents from other regions choose to send their children to schools in Greater
Accra for JHS, so raising the NER in Greater Accra. The divergence between GER and NER
shows that particularly in the northern regions children in JHS are not of the appropriate age,
most likely starting school later than encouraged. This highlights the difficulty in keeping
children in school past Primary level at the correct age in the northern regions.
32
Figure 12. JHS Gross and Net Enrolment Ratio by region, 2012/13
Enrolment by grade is shown in Figure 13 below, indicating that whilst enrolment has
generally seen an upward trend, there is still a large gap between the numbers entering JHS
(JH1) and those completing (JH3).
Figure 13. Enrolment by grade in JHS
Pupil retention and repetition
Retention rates are a way to follow a cohort. They are a proxy for what proportion of students
who enter a level of education make it to the final grade of that level the correct number of
33
years later (see the glossary for definitions).6 Figure 14 indicates that there has been
deterioration in retention rates at Primary and JHS over the last five years.
The retention rate for Primary in 2012/13 was 81%, indicating that the number of pupils
enrolled in P6 in 2012/13 is only 81% of those who entered P1 in 2007/8 (who should be in
P6 now). This rate has fallen from 91.8% in 2008/9.
Similarly, the number of JHS3 pupils account for only 78.5% of JHS1 pupils in 2010/11. This
has fallen from 90.8% in 2008/9.
There is an understandable rationale for JHS retention to be lower for Primary – as pupils get
older, the opportunity cost of their time increases as they could be engaged in increasingly
productive activities. It might make sense therefore for more pupils to drop out before
completing JHS3. However, it is unclear why the numbers failing to reach JHS3 should be
increasing over recent years.
It will be important to investigate what is causing this deterioration in retention, leading to
fewer pupils making it through the full course of basic education.
Figure 14. Retention rates in Primary and JHS education
Repetition rates tell us what proportion of the pupils in a level of education are repeating that
grade. Table 8 shows that in 2012/13, 2.3% of KG pupils were repeating a class, and the
steady decline in recent years indicates an improvement if fewer pupils need to repeat the
grade.
Primary pupils are also seeing a decline in repetition, with only 2.6% of pupils repeaters in
2012/13 compared with 3.8% five years ago in 2008/9.
6
Here there is no adjustment for repeaters.
34
The proportion of pupils in JHS who are repeating is also declining, from 3.7% in 2011/12 to
3.3% in 2012/13.
Table 8.
Repetition rates in Basic Education
Repetition rates (%)
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
KG
3.1
2.9
2.9
2.7
2.3
Primary
3.8
3.5
2.9
2.8
2.6
JHS
3.1
3.0
3.8
3.7
3.3
Private provision
2012/13 sees a continuing shift towards enrolment in private schools. Enrolment in private
schools increased much more than in public schools this year in Primary and JHS, and
enrolment actually decreased in public KG schools. As a result, the percentage of enrolment
in private schools is now 23.6% at KG, 23.1% in Primary and 20.3% in JHS, signifying at
least one in five children go to private schools (see table 9).
Table 9.
% enrolment in
private education
KG
Primary
JHS
Enrolment in private education in basic schools
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
19.4
19.5
20.8
22.2
18
18.6
19.3
17.2
17.4
17.6
Deprived dist
2011/12
2012/13
23.6
8.9
9.7
22.1
23.1
7.7
7.8
19.0
20.3
6.1
6.7
First year enrolment data (Table 10) shows that parents are choosing to start their children in
private basic schools more than in previous years. Admissions into Primary 1 for example
increased in private schools by 5.5%, from 174,814 in 2011/12 to 184,468 in 2012/13.
However, public school P1 admissions actually fell by 2.1%, from 572,584 to 560,386.
Table 10.
Enrolment in first year, private and public schools
KG 1
2011/12
2012/13
% change
Public
695,013
710,271
2.2
Private
180,405
196,671
9.0
Total
875,418
906,942
3.6
Primary 1
2011/12
2012/13
% change
Public
572,584
560,386
-2.1
Private
174,814
184,468
5.5
Total
747,398
744,854
-0.3
JHS 1
2011/12
2012/13
% change
Public
424,935
442,936
4.2
Private
97,747
110,143
12.7
Total
522,682
553,079
5.8
35
This shift can reflect a number of social factors, for example a growing preference for private
education, or private schools opening up to serve communities where insufficient public
schools existed.
However, part of the increase in private enrolment will be a result of increased coverage of
private schools in the annual school census. This year 15,332 private basic schools
responded to the school census, compared with 14,114 last year (an increase of 8.6%). We
cannot say what the coverage rate is without accurately knowing the total number of private
schools.
36
2.2 Gender
The ESP 2010-2020 has a policy objective to Bridge the gender gap in access to education.
Data on access shows that progress was made towards gender equality in 2012/13. The
gender parity index increased at KG and Primary levels, actually surpassing the target of 1
for kindergarten. The GPI fell slightly at JHS level.
These changes partly reflect the change in underlying population data. Figure 15 shows that
the old population data underestimated the GPIs for KG and Primary levels. This is because
the girls’ population decreased more significantly using the 2010 census than for boys,
making the girls’ GER rise more than that of boys and hence the GPI (a ratio of FGER to
MGER) has risen. Thus, more girls are being sent to KG than boys (giving a GPI of more
than 1), and at primary the GPI is higher than previously estimated.
At JHS the population was actually underestimated for girls yet overestimated for boys using
the old census data. With the new population data, the girls GER worsens and hence GPI
does also. This means that whilst the official GPI indicator shows a decrease this year, there
was actually an improvement in GPI in 2012/13 when using 2010 PHC data due to a big
increase in girls’ enrolment in JHS.
Table 11.
Gross Enrolment Ratios and Gender Parity Indices in basic
education
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
Depr Dist
2012/13
FGER
92.2
96.5
97.5
98.4
115.3
112.7
MGER
93.5
98.1
99.2
100.4
112.4
110.6
GPI
0.99
0.98
0.98
0.98
1.03
1.02
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
Depr Dist
2012/13
FGER
92.79
93.03
94.7
94.9
104.5
97.2
MGER
96.97
96.7
98
97.9
105.5
100.3
GPI
0.96
0.96
0.97
0.97
0.99
0.97
JHS
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
Depr Dist
2012/13
FGER
76.93
76.3
76.4
78.1
79.2
65.4
MGER
84.05
82.5
82.6
83
85.2
72.0
GPI
0.92
0.92
0.93
0.94
0.93
0.91
KG
Primary
37
Figure 15. Gender parity index at basic level – data comparisons
The MICS 2006-2011 data supports the finding that success is being achieved in gender
goals. The results for six to fourteen year olds show that girls have marginally higher
participation rates than boys in 2011, which is different from 2006 when the reverse was true
(UNICEF, 2013).
Figure 16. Gender Parity Index at basic education by region, 2012/13
Figure 16 shows that there is quite some disparity in bridging the gender gap across the
regions. At all three levels of education, Upper West has the highest GPIs: KG 1.06, Primary
1.05 and JHS 1.06, and interestingly Upper East comes a close second for JHS. The
Northern Region is at the other end of the scale, with a GPI of only 0.85 at JHS (0.98 at KG
and 0.92 at Primary). Analysis by UNICEF in 2012 shows that at the regional level there are
38
specific differences in attendance by gender (data from Ghana Demographic and Health
Survey, 2008) (UNICEF and UIS, 2012). Girls are more likely to attend school in the Upper
West and Volta regions, with boys more likely in the Northern region. A number of sociocultural barriers to girls’ participation in education are identified. These include negative
beliefs towards girls’ roles and value of education, early marriage, teenage pregnancy and
gender-based violence. The report goes on to recommend the following strategies to tackle
these barriers: gender responsive teacher training; community sensitization and mobilization;
incentive packages (e.g. take home ration programme); girls camps/vacation clubs; and the
enforcement of child rights, protection laws and protocols.
Girls also tend to underperform when compared with boys at the Basic level. BECE results
from 2012 show that boys tend to achieve higher scores than girls in the core subjects
Maths, Science and Social Studies, though the reverse is true for English (see Figure 17). A
report for the World Bank in 2012 looked at influences on 2009 NEA test scores in English
and Mathematics for boys and girls (Joseph and Wodon, 2012). The analysis found that
access to basic infrastructure and better school facilities tends to have larger beneficial
impacts for girls than boys, and that illiteracy at household level tends to hurt girls more than
boys.
The Girls Education Unit in the GES leads on achieving gender parity in education. Key
activities in 2012 include:





Provision of scholarships to 3,000 girls in the three northern regions through the
Basic Education Scholarship Programme. The scholarship supported the
beneficiaries with school uniforms, school sandals, schoolbags and stationery, and
provided teaching and learning materials to the school. In addition mentoring camps
and awards were organised to build confidence and motivation.
Over 600 girls took part in a 10-day camp to gain life skills such as leadership,
HIV/STDs, communication and decision-making.
Camps were held for 50 boys and 150 girls separately to promote positive attitudes
towards female education and career opportunities.
Capacity building was carried out for 180 Regional and District Girls’ Education
Officers in the Child Friendly School concept and practice.
The Girls PASS Programme, a USD 9.2 million grant aimed at providing scholarships
to 55,000 girls was inaugurated.
39
2.3 Quality
The following table lists the key targets for indicators relating to quality. A number of
indicators will be discussed in the following sections. Measures of learning outcomes at
Basic Education are limited, and so many of the quality indicators relate to inputs such as
teachers and textbooks.
Table 12.
Key Targets for Quality of Education
Indicator
% Preschool Teachers Trained
% Primary Teachers Trained
% JSS Teachers Trained
KG Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR)
Primary Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR)
JSS Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR)
Primary Completion rate
JHS Completion rate
Primary core textbook-to-pupil ratio
JHS core textbook-to-pupil ratio
Target
95.0%
95.0%
95.0%
45:1
45:1
35:1
by 2015
by 2015
by 2015
by 2015
by 2015
by 2015
100%
100%
By 2015
By 2015
3:1
3:1
By 2012
By 2012
NEA
The National Education Assessment is the only standardised test currently undertaken in
Ghana, though as it is a biennial assessment and was last carried out in 2011the results from
the 2011 NEA were reported in the 2012 ESPR. In 2013 the NEA is being repeated and the
first national sample of the Early Grade Reading and Maths Assessments (EGRA/EMGA) at
P2 is being carried out.
An analysis was carried out in 2012 using the 2009 NEA test scores to find the main
determinants of NEA scores, using data from the EMIS as explanatory variables (Joseph and
Wodon, 2012). Some key findings were:




Having trained teachers does matter for test scores, but the effect is not very large, at
only one to two percentage points. This means that a school with all its teachers
having the appropriate degree will have an increase in test scores of up to two
percent versus a school without trained teachers.
The presence of female teachers also matters – and the magnitude of the impact is
larger, often at two to three percentage points.
The availability of textbooks does not seem to make a difference for English test
scores, but it does matter for mathematics, although the effect is not large.
The presence of toilets increases test scores by about half to one percentage point.
The impact of having drinking water is larger, at one to two percentage points. Access
to electricity seems to have an even larger positive impact, estimated at three
percentage points for English, although the effect is smaller for mathematics.
40

School meals, capitation grants, and more frequent meetings of the school
management committee are all associated with negative effects on test scores when
the effect is statistically significant. This could be an endogeneity problem, whereby
schools with meals and capitation attract new students who have not benefited from
as many years schooling, or the programmes are targeted at schools which have not
been performing as well.
BECE
In 2012 376,859 JHS students were registered for the BECE examinations. Of those,
376,001 qualified for entry into SHS, of which 375,123 (99.8%) were placed in SHS (see note
in section 3.1 on 2012 SHS placement).
BECE scores are derived using the students’ raw test scores and the overall distribution of
scores, such that results are assigned a value from 1 (the highest) to 9 (the poorest
performers) (the ‘stanine’ system). In each year the grades are identically distributed such
that 4% of students receive a 1, 7% a 2 and so on, fitting 54% of students into grades 4, 5
and 6. As a result these grades show the students’ relative performance against their peers
rather than their absolute performance. This means that the proportion of students receiving
a particular grade should be the same every year, and it is not possible to compare grades
across years7. It is however possible to analyse the results distributionally, to compare how
certain groups of students do relative to their peers, in a single year.
Previous performance reports have shown the proportion of students scoring between 1 and
5, but for more in-depth presentation this year the analysis categorises the results into three
groups:



‘above average’ (scores 1 to 3),
‘average’ (scores 4 to 6) and
‘below average’ (scores 7 to 9).
In all cases these are shown as a proportion of the students who wrote the exams. The data
comes from the West African Examinations Council and SRIMPR, MoE.
Table 13 shows the percentage of students nationally who received ‘above average’,
‘average’ and ‘below average’ scores in the four core subjects for BECE 2012. It can be seen
that in each subject, 54% of students achieved average (scores 4, 5 and 6) which matches
the distribution discussed above. The above and below average categories both contain
around 23% of students.
Table 13.
Distribution of national BECE results by subject, 2012
Subject
Above average
Average
Below average
English
23%
54%
23%
Maths
23%
54%
23%
Science
25%
54%
22%
7
See previous ESPRs for this explanation, which was reviewed by discussion with GES Basic Education
Division.
41
Social Studies
23%
54%
23%
Gender analysis of BECE
Figure 17 looks at the results by gender. It can be seen that in all subjects except English,
more males achieve above average than females. Figure 18 shows this in more detail just for
Maths results.
Figure 17. Distribution of BECE results by gender (Female F, Male M), 2012
Figure 18. Maths BECE results by gender, 2012
42
Regional analysis of BECE
The results can be analysed region by region to see whether some regions are performing
better than others. If all regions were identical, then they would all see the same bell-shaped
pattern of scores as the national pattern.
Instead, what Figure 19 shows is that some regions do better than others. Figure 19 shows
the distribution of scores within a region amongst the three categories, just for English. The
blue bar (the left of each trio) represents above average, red is average (the middle), and
green is below average (the right of each trio). Greater Accra has by far a higher proportion
of ‘above average’ students than the national average – at almost 45%. The Ashanti region
comes in as the region having the next largest proportion of above average performers.
Regions with a very high proportion of below average students are Upper East, Northern and
Upper West.
Figure 19. Distribution of English BECE results by region, 2012
43
Figure 20. Distribution of English BECE results for deprived and non-deprived
districts, 2012
Figure 20 also shows that the deprived districts have a higher share of average and below
average performers than the non-deprived districts. Table 14 shows that this is true for all
four subjects – the deprived districts have a much lower proportion of students receiving
above average grades than then non-deprived districts. This is unsurprising since BECE
‘pass rates’ (those with scores 1 to 5) are one of the indicators used in defining the deprived
districts.
Table 14.
BECE ‘above average’ rates by deprived and non-deprived
districts, 2012
English
Maths
Science
Social Studies
Deprived districts
11%
13%
10%
15%
Non-deprived districts
26%
26%
25%
25%
National
23%
23%
22%
23%
The standardised scoring system of the BECE means that there is no annual assessment by
which students’ learning outcomes can be compared year-on-year to measure progress or
stagnation. This means we are unable to measure national performance, and schools and
districts are unable to gauge their own performance and hold teachers fairly to account.
Some districts are already aware of this and trying to introduce district-wise standardised
tests in all schools in their districts. Another possibility would be to release the raw test
scores of the BECE, rather than only the stanine derived scores, in order for schools and
students to see how they have performed in absolute terms rather than relative to that year’s
cohort.
Completion rates
44
Ghana uses a definition of completion rates recommended by the World Bank (see glossary),
and the results this year are very reliant on the use of the PHC 2010 population data.
Completion rates significantly improved at the primary level, surpassing the target of 100%
(Table 15).8 However, a large portion of this annual increase was due to the population
adjustment, as can be seen in Figure 21.
At JHS completion rates increased by over 3 percentage points, a good improvement but not
fast enough to meet the target of 100% by 2015.
In the deprived districts completion rates are marginally higher at the primary level (114.2)
than the national level (112.4), and saw a slight fall from the previous year. This is not the
result which would be expected from the deprived districts, raising the question about the
accuracy of the population estimates. Completion rates at JHS in the deprived districts are
over ten percentage points below the national level, at 59.9, indicating that these districts
struggle to keep students in school up to JHS3. There was a two percentage point
improvement on 2011/12, showing that progress is being made.
Caution must be exercised in using these completion rates as they are heavily dependent on
the underlying population estimates of one age group (11 and 14 year-olds respectively).
Table 15.
Primary
JHS
Completion rates at Primary and JHS
Deprived Dist
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
Target 2015
2011/12
2012/13
86.3
87.1
91.6
93.7
112.4
100
114.4
114.2
75
66
66.9
66.8
70.1
100
57.9
59.9
Figure 21. Completion rates - data comparisons
8
It is often expected that a completion rate should not be greater than 100%. However the completion rate can
exceed 100% if there are many overage students in the last grade of primary school. PBME Division will review
the choice of completion indicators for use in next year’s Performance Report.
45
Teachers
At all three levels of basic education, the number of trained teachers increased in 2012/13
(Table 16). This increase was most noticeable in KG schools, where there were 19% more
trained teachers in 2012 than in 2011.
Table 16.
Numbers of teachers in basic education (public and private
schools)
KG
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
% change 2011/12 to
2012/13
Trained
12,920
14,868
17,701
19%
Untrained
28,564
27,549
27,522
0%
Total
41,484
42,417
45,223
7%
Primary
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
% change
Trained
62,926
64,367
69,082
7%
Untrained
61,433
58,786
60,517
3%
Total
JHS
124,359
2010/11
123,153
2011/12
129,599
2012/13
5%
% change
Trained
54,802
59,001
64,593
9%
Untrained
28,537
26,846
29,204
9%
Total
83,339
85,847
93,797
9%
In 2012/13 the pupil-teacher ratios in public basic schools fell at all three levels, moving
further away from the target PTRs in Volume 2 of the ESP 2010-20 (see Figure 22 and Table
17). PTRs are now 37 in KG, 33 in Primary and 16 in JHS. Low PTRs mean there are more
teachers and smaller class sizes than is required, which could indicate inefficient use of
resources. However, in some small schools and communities it may be necessary to have
smaller class sizes, so the target should be seen more as a maximum.
The deprived districts tend to have much higher PTRs than the national level, demonstrating
the difficulty in attracting teachers to these districts.
46
Figure 22. Pupil-teacher ratios in public basic schools
Progress towards the target that 95% of teachers should be trained was made at all three
levels, including in the deprived districts (Table 17). The increase was most pronounced at
KG, which now has 51.6% of its teachers trained but is thus still furthest from the target. JHS
had the smallest increase in its percent of trained teachers, from 82.9% to 83.7%, however it
still gained over 5,000 trained teachers and it is the closest level to the 95% target. Reaching
the 95% demonstrates the potential difficulty in attracting trained teachers to some schools,
or in reaching the final few untrained teachers with programmes such as the Untrained
Teacher Diploma in Basic Education. It looks unlikely that KG or Primary will meet the 95%
trained teacher target by 2015.
Table 17.
Teachers indicators in public basic schools, by level
KG
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
Target*
- 2015
PTR
37
34
37
38
37
PTTR
117
105
96
85
72
% Trained
31.3
32.2
38.8
44.8
51.6
Primary
34
31
34
34
33
PTTR
59
53
54
52
48
58.4
58.2
62.8
66.3
69.4
JHS
2012/13
45
54
54
183
159
95
29.7
34.3
40
39
83
78
47.7
49.7
21
20
30
27
70.1
72.1
45
95
*
PTR
18
15
17
17
16
PTTR
23
20
22
20
19
76.7
72.8
78.4
82.9
83.7
% Trained
2011/12
*
PTR
% Trained
Deprived Districts
35
95
47
*Targets from ESP 2010-2020 Volume 2
The situation with teachers varies significantly across districts and regions. At the regional
level, Greater Accra has the highest proportion of trained teachers in all three levels of basic
schooling, and Upper East has the lowest. However, looking at pupil to teacher ratios,
Ashanti has some of the lowest, suggesting it is well-endowed with teachers, and the three
northern regions have the highest, reflecting the difficulty in attracting teachers to these
areas (as with the deprived districts in table 17 above). The Western region also has notably
high PTTRs, as shown in Figure 23.
Table 18.
Regions with the highest and lowest percentages of trained
teachers in public basic schools
Percentage of trained teachers
KG
Primary
JHS
Highest region: Greater Accra
79
95
96
Lowest region: Upper East
32
48
70
Figure 23. Pupil-to-trained-teacher ratios in public basic schools, by region
Teacher gaps
The situation of teacher gaps in the regions depends on the target or ‘norm’ PTR being used.
The ESP 2010-2020 Volume 2 contains the following targets for PTRs: KG 45, Primary 45,
JHS 35. These can be seen as maximum targets, and the ESP 2003-15 provides minimum
targets: KG 25, Primary 35 and JHS 25.
Figure 24 shows that using the ESP 2010-20 targets, in all regions there is a surplus of
teachers in Primary and JHS, and in eight out of ten regions there is a surplus of KG
teachers. This means, according to the norm, fewer teachers are needed and they could be
48
more efficiently distributed (with the caveat that some small schools will require high
numbers of teachers).
Figure 24. Numbers of surplus teachers in public basic schools in 2012/13, using
ESP 2010-20 PTR targets
Figure 25 shows a different picture of the situation when the sector applies the minimum
PTRs (KG 25; Primary 35 and JHS 25)9. Here it can be seen that all regions are lacking
enough KG teachers, and half of the regions are in short supply of Primary teachers.
Figure 25. Numbers of surplus teachers in public basic schools in 2012/13,
GNECC’s 2013 policy brief on teacher gaps uses the minimum PTRs and 2011/12 EMIS
data to indicate that public basic schools are over staffed by as high as over 6000 teachers
(GNECC, 2013). Table 19 updates this analysis to 2012/13 data to compare teacher
9
As noted in ESP 2003-2015
49
distribution, requirement and difference (surplus or deficit of teachers) using minimum and
maximum PTRs. With the 2012/13 data and the minimum PTRs, the overall surplus rises to
15,000 teachers, and is over 70,000 when the maximum PTRs are used.
Table 19.
Teacher distribution at the basic level, using maximum and
minimum PTRs, 2012/13
Total
Trained
%
PTR
teachers teachers trained Norm
Enrolment
PTR
PTTR
Req’mt
Surplus
(deficit)
Maximums
KG
1,226,132
33,108
17,070
52%
45
37
72
27,247
5,861
Primary
3,156,572
94,905
65,889
69%
45
33
48
70,146
24,759
JHS
Basic
National
1,157,827
72,777
60,906
84%
35
16
19
33,081
39,696
5,540,531
200,790
143,865
72%
42*
28
39
130,474
70,316
KG
1,226,132
33,108
17,070
52%
25
37
72
49,045
(15,937)
Primary
3,156,572
94,905
65,889
69%
35
33
48
90,188
4,717
JHS
1,157,827
72,777
60,906
84%
25
16
19
46,313
Basic
5,540,531
200,790 143,865 72%
30*
28
39
185,546
National
* National PTR norms calculated as weighted average of the norms for KG, Primary and JHS
26,464
Minimums
15,244
Private schools
Table 20 shows that private schools tend to have smaller class sizes and hence lower pupilto-teacher ratios than public schools. However, they have much lower proportions of trained
teachers, for example at JHS public schools 84% of teachers are trained, whereas in private
schools only 18% are.
Table 20.
KG
Teacher statistics for public and private schools, 2012/13
PTR
PTTR
Trained teachers
Public
37
72
52%
Private
31
600
5%
35
PTR
91
PTTR
39%
Trained teachers
Public
33
48
69%
Private
27
297
9%
Total
32
59
53%
Total
Primary
JHS
PTR
PTTR
Trained teachers
Public
16
19
84%
Private
14
80
18%
Total
15
22
69%
A note on allocation of newly trained teachers from the Colleges of Education is included in
section 1.3, reviewing progress on the Aide Memoire 2012 activities.
50
Curriculum and Text Books
In Primary and JHS schools there should be three core text books per pupil: English, Maths
and Science. In 2012/13, progress was made towards this target at the primary level in public
schools, however the core textbook ratio fell for JHS schools (Table 21). There was no
central procurement of textbooks carried out in 2012, so the increase could be due to
purchase of textbooks at the school level (e.g. with support from NGOs or PTAs), or due to
inconsistent interpretation of the question in the census, with some schools including other
reading materials as textbooks.
Table 21.
Core textbooks per pupil, public basic schools
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
KG
0.1
0.2
0.4
0.3
0.3
Primary
1.6
1.6
1
0.9
1.2
JHS
2.1
1.5
0.9
1.1
0.9
Target
– 2015
Deprived dist
2011/12
2012/13
0.3
0.3
3
0.8
1.1
3
1.0
0.9
Figure 26. Core textbook to pupil ratios over time
Ashanti and Central regions have the most core textbooks per pupil at Primary, and Eastern
and Western at JHS. Upper West and Northern regions have the fewest core textbooks per
pupil at Primary, and Upper East and Upper West are the least endowed at JHS.
51
Figure 27. Core textbook to pupil ratios in public basic schools, by region
Class size and Furniture
The number of pupils per classroom fell slightly in 2012/13 for all levels of public basic
schools (Table 22), suggesting that drives to provide more infrastructure have outpaced
increases in enrolment. Similarly, the number of pupils per seating place fell marginally at all
levels, improving the learning environment for pupils (Table 23).
The deprived districts have higher pupil to classroom and seating ratios than the national
level, indicating the inadequate provision of infrastructure in these districts. There was an
improvement (a lowering) of these ratios from 2011 to 2012 at KG, Primary and JHS in
deprived districts.
Table 22.
Pupil Classroom
Ratio
Pupil to classroom ratios in public basic schools
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
KG
53.5
57.4
63.7
64.3
Primary
39.8
40
41.9
38
37.1
38.9
JHS
Table 23.
Pupil seating ratio
KG
Primary
Deprived District
2011/12
2012/13
61.0
89.7
83.0
42.3
39.6
45.5
42.1
38.7
37.7
45.2
42.8
Pupil to seating place ratios in public basic schools
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
2
2
2
2
1.3
1.4
1.4
1.4
Deprived District
2011/12
2012/13
1.8
3.0
2.7
1.3
1.6
1.5
52
JHS
1.3
1.3
1.3
1.3
1.2
1.3
1.2
Data from January 2013 shows that there were 7,869 schools in need of infrastructure
support: of these, 409 were running shift systems, 4,696 had dilapidated structures, and
2,764 were classified as schools under trees. The Ministry of Education and GETfund
projects to build new structures for schools under trees is ongoing, with the status shown in
table 24 below. At January 888 GETfund and 80 MoE schools under trees structures had
been completed.
Table 24.
Progress of Schools under Trees projects, at January 2013
Total
Completed
Ongoing
1,837
888
949
MoE
432
80
352
Total
2,269
968
1,301
Getfund
53
3 SECOND CYCLE EDUCATION
Summary
Upon completion of Junior high schools, graduates have the opportunity to transit into senior
high schools or technical and vocational education training institutes.
The number of students enrolled in senior high schools increased in 2012, although the rate
of increase is less than the population projection leading to a slight reduction in the gross
enrolment ratio from 37.1 to 36.8.
The proportion of SHS students who are female increased to 45.9%, but the gender parity
index remains low at 0.86. The completion rate for males is almost 6 percentage points
higher than for females.
WASSCE pass rates improved in 2012 compared with 2011 in all the subjects except for
English, where the results fell. The pass rate was higher for males than for females in each
of the four core subjects.
A number of indicators of teaching quality showed a worsening situation in 2012/13. In public
SHS schools the pupil-teacher ratio and pupil to trained teacher ratios decreased in 2012/13,
suggesting that there are more teachers available in schools. However the proportion of SHS
teachers who are trained decreased by 0.5 percentage points to 86.9%. The number of
textbooks per pupil fell for English (0.66), Maths (0.67) and Science textbooks (0.63).
The 45 Technical and Vocational Institutions under the GES has 36,830 students enrolled in
2012/13. Overall enrolment in TVET decreased by 1.3% from the previous year, but this may
be due to inconsistent coverage of institutions.
GES TVET institutions have highly qualified teachers, where 94.8% have a technical
qualification and 80.9% are trained as teachers.
The gross enrolment ratio decreased in second cycle education as a whole (SHS and TVET)
when compared with 2011 (see Table 25). However, this is likely due to the upwards
adjustment in the population estimate used for 2012/13.
Table 25.
Enrolment
2011/12+
2012/13
SHS
758,468
842,587
TVET
62,303
61,496
Total
820,771
904,212
2,044,848
2,291,267
GER*
2011/12
2012/13
SHS
37.1
36.8
TVET*
3.0
2.7
Population 15-18
54
Total
40.1
39.5
+
2011/12 uses the 2000 PHC population estimates.
*The GER is based on the population of 15 to 18 year olds, although TVET courses are
usually three years whereas SHS is four years.
In 2012 the Ghana Education Service provided subsidies for 697,917 SHS and 51,487 TVET
students from 548 second cycle institutions
55
3.1 Senior High School
Access
The number of SHS schools in Ghana increased by 9.4% between 2011 and 2012, now at
828 (Table 26). There were 20 new public SHS, bringing the total to 535. Ashanti and Central
regions have the most SHS schools, and Upper West and Upper East have the fewest.
Table 26.
Number of senior high schools by type
2008-09
2009-10
2010-11
2011-12
2012-13
Public
493
496
511
515
535
Private
177
201
209
242
293
Total
670
697
720
757
828
SHS
Figure 28. Number of senior high schools by region, 2012/13
The number of students enrolled in Senior High Schools increased in 2012 to 842,587 (Table
27).
The reported gross enrolment ratio fell by 0.3 percentage points to 36.8, and the net
enrolment ratio remained unchanged at 23.6. However, when indicators are recalculated
using the new population data, it appears they were previously overestimated and in fact in
2012 there was an improvement in both GER and NER (see Figure 29).
The transition rate from JHS 3 into SHS 1 increased this year, from 50.7% in 2011/12 to
61.2% in 2012/13. This can largely be explained by the increase in entry to SHS this year as
the GES made more places available for JHS graduates into SHS 1 (see discussion of SHS
placement below).
56
Private schools are seeing a gradual decline in their proportion of SHS enrolment, now at
8.5%, down from a recent peak of 10.8% in 2009/10.
Table 27.
SHS enrolment statistics
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
GER
33.9
36.1
36.5
37.1
36.8
NER
17.7
18.5
24.3
23.6
23.6
490,334
537,332
728,076
758,468
842,587
Transition rate from JHS3 to SHS1 %
51.4
52.2
57.5
50.7
61.2
% of pupils in private education
10.0
10.8
8.9
8.8
8.5
Enrolment
Figure 29. SHS enrolment ratios – data comparisons
Placement into SHS
In 2012 376,001 qualified for entry into SHS, of which 375,123 (99.8%) were placed in SHS.
However, this is a significant increase on the number placed the previous year (199,895 in
2011). Figure 30 below shows the numbers of students who were presented for SHS (i.e.
who sat the BECE), those who qualified, and those who were placed since 2008. Note that
whilst placement increased to 375,123, it does not mean all of these students then enrolled
and accessed SHS. Enrolment in SHS 1 in 2012/13 was reported in EMIS as 228,795, of
which 213,507 were in public schools and 15,288 in private schools.
57
Figure 30. SHS placement: students presented, qualifying and placed in SHS, 2008
to 2012
Secondary Education Division in the GES increased the number of places available as
schools will soon be moving from four year groups to three, making more space for students
in each year group. In the past the requirement for qualification into SHS was a BECE score
of 1 to 6 in the four core subjects, and an aggregate score over 6 subjects (including the four
core subjects) of 30 or below. In 2012, however, entrance to SHS depended on the number
of places available on the programme chosen, which was then filled up according to the raw
scores of the students. This relaxing of the requirements is the reason for the significant
increase in students qualifying in 2012 compared with previous years.
Figure 31 shows the number of pupils enrolled in each grade of SHS nationally. The sharp
increase in the number of students in SH1 is clearly visible. SH2 and SH3 have undergone
more sporadic shifts, with the rise and fall of SH2 being played out in SH3 the years after.
However the much higher numbers in SH2 in 2012/13 than SH1 in 2011/12 suggest a large
number of repeaters. In the past three years the number of students enrolled in SHS4 has
increased.
58
Figure 31. Enrolment by grade at SHS
Gender
Enrolment and achievement remains unequal for boys and girls in senior high schools. In
2012/13 the proportion of SHS enrolment made up of girls increased marginally to 45.9%
(see Table 28).
The GPI in 2012/13 stands at 0.86, a slight worsening on last year when it was 0.87 but this
is removed when adjusting for the new population data (see Figure 32).
The transition rates show us that the lower female enrolment in SHS is to some extent an
overhang from JHS 3 – over the years male and female transition rates into SHS1 are very
similar. In fact in 2012/13, females had a higher transition rate at 62.2% than males at
60.3%, making female JHS graduates slightly more likely to have entered SHS than males.
Table 28.
Gender equality indicators at SHS
Details
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
% female enrolment – SHS
44.3
44.7
45.4
45.3
45.9
GPI
0.84
0.85
0.87
0.87
0.86
Transition rate JHS3 to SHS1 % - Male
51.7
52.3
56.7
50.9
60.3
Transition rate JHS3 to SHS1 % - Female
SHS Completion rate – Male
51.1
52.1
58.4
50.4
62.3
-
35.8
34.6
37.4
33.9
-
29.8
31.1
31.1
28.1
SHS Completion rate – Female
59
Figure 32. Gender Parity Index at SHS – data comparisons
More boys finish SHS than girls do, as shown by the higher completion rates (those in SHS4)
for boys than girls. The indicators show a fall in completion this year, however this reflects an
upward adjustment in the population estimates which revises the previous completion rates
down (see figure 33). Once this adjustment is made, it can be seen that completion rates
improved substantially for boys and girls in 2012/13.
Figure 33. Completion rates at SHS – data comparisons
60
Pass rates are higher for boys than for girls in the four core WASSCE subjects (see Quality
below).
Quality
WASSCE
In 2012 the WASSCE was sat by 174,461 students in Ghana.
Pass rates improved in 201210 compared with 2011 in all the subjects except for English,
where the results fell (see Figure 30). This comes after a considerable increase in pass rates
in English the year before. The general upward trend in pass rates could be related to the
move to a four-year SHS which affected the 2011 and 2012 cohorts.
The pass rate was higher for males than for females in each of the four core subjects. The
gap was most distinct in Maths and Integrated Sciences (Table 29).
Table 29.
WASSCE Examination pass rates by subject and gender, 2012
Male pass rate
Female pass rate
Total pass rate
English
69%
67%
68%
Mathematics
55%
44%
50%
Integrated Science
61%
52%
57%
Social Studies
88%
86%
87%
The results varied geographically (Table 30). In all four core subjects, the Northern region
had the lowest pass rate. In English the pass rates ranged from 76% in Eastern region down
to 48% in Northern region. Notably Upper West performed far above average in Integrated
Sciences, with a 70% pass rate compared with 57% nationally. In Maths all the pass rates
were lower than for other subjects, ranging from 57% (Eastern) down to 34% (Northern).
Table 30.
WASSCE Examination pass rates by region and subject, 2012
English
Mathematics
Integrated Science
Social Studies
Eastern
76%
57%
64%
91%
Greater Accra
73%
43%
57%
83%
Brong Ahafo
70%
56%
58%
90%
Volta
68%
38%
50%
79%
Ashanti
68%
53%
57%
90%
Central
68%
48%
54%
88%
Western
66%
55%
56%
91%
Upper West
65%
54%
70%
89%
Upper East
62%
54%
66%
91%
Northern
48%
34%
41%
72%
10
Data comes from West African Examinations Council and SRIMPR.
61
Total
68%
50%
57%
87%
Figure 34. WASSCE pass rates by subject, 2006 to 2012
Looking at the school level data shows that there is great inequality in results across schools.
Figure 35 shows that at the school level, in 2012 there was an improvement in the proportion
of students qualifying for tertiary education (receiving an aggregate score of 6 to 24). In 2012
62% of schools had less than one-fifth of students qualifying, compared with 72% in 2011.
Schools with over 80% of students qualifying increased from 4% in 2011 to 7% in 2012.
However, the results are still very concerning, as 79% of schools had less than 40% of
students qualifying.
62
Figure 35. Distribution of WASSCE scores across schools: proportion of schools’
candidates who qualify for tertiary education
NB * indicates the categories begin just above the starred number, for example 20 would fall
into band 0 – 20 and 20.1 would fall into band 20* - 40.
Figure 36 has divided all the senior high schools into five quintiles based on the number of
their candidates who qualified for tertiary education. It shows that 66% of the students who
qualified for tertiary education came from the top 20% of schools. The lowest 20% of schools
only produced 1% of the students qualifying for tertiary.
Figure 36. Distribution of those students who qualify for tertiary education across
schools
63
Completion rates, teachers and learning materials
As discussed under gender above, in 2012/13 the completion rate decreased to 31.0.
However, when the completion rates are recalculated for 2010/11 and 2011/12 using the
2010 census population projections, it can be seen that the previous indicators were an
overestimate (Table 31). With the new calculations, the completion rate has been steadily
increasing each year.
Table 31.
Completion rates – data comparisons
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
Completion rate (2000 data)
32.9
34.3
Completion rate (2010 data)
22.6
27.0
31.0
Completion rate (official indicator)
32.9
34.3
31.0
Table 32 shows a number of indicators relating to teaching quality.




In public SHS schools the pupil-teacher ratio and pupil to trained teacher ratios
decreased in 2012/13, suggesting that there are more teachers available in schools.
The proportion of teachers who are trained decreased by 0.5 percentage points to
86.9%.
The number of textbooks per pupil fell for English (0.66), Maths (0.67) and Science
textbooks (0.63).
There was improvement in the provision of classroom furniture, as the number of
pupils sharing desks and seats fell, with pupil to seat and desk ratios now at 1.16 and
1.18 respectively. However the number of pupils per classroom increased from 50.4
to 56.0, reflecting the increase in enrolment.
Table 32.
Indicators of quality at SHS public schools
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
PTR
22.2
21.1
27.31
24.4
23.4
PTTR
25.6
24.6
32.0
27.9
27.0
% Teachers trained
86.8
85.9
85.3
87.4
86.9
Textbook per pupil English
1.03
0.94
0.56
0.74
0.66
Textbook per pupil Maths
0.97
0.93
0.58
0.75
0.67
Textbook per pupil Science
0.64
0.72
0.48
0.68
0.63
Pupil Classroom ratio
42.7
45.8
53.3
50.4
56.0
Pupil seating ratio
1.2
1.2
1.32
1.3
1.16
Pupil desk ratio
1.2
1.4
1.32
1.3
1.18
Whilst private SHS schools have more teachers in the classroom, they have fewer trained
teachers and hence a higher PTTR than public schools (Table 33). The percentage of
teachers who are trained is 86.9% in public schools but only 55.0% in private schools.
64
Table 33.
Teacher statistics, public and private SHS schools
PTR
PTTR
% trained
Public
23.4
27.0
86.9
Private
16.5
30.0
55.0
Total
22.6
27.2
83.2
65
3.2 Technical and Vocational Institutes
Access
According to the EMIS census, in 2012/13 there were 61,496 students enrolled in technical
and vocational institutes (TVIs), of which 79% were enrolled in public TVIs (see table 34).
The number enrolled in public TVIs increased by 4.6% on 2011/12. However, the numbers
enrolled in private TVIs fell by 19%, giving a 1.3% reduction in enrolment altogether. The
shift from private to public may also reflect a take-over of some private institutes by the public
sector.
There is ongoing difficulty with coverage of Technical and Vocational Education and Training
institutes in the EMIS census.11 Difficulty in ensuring coverage is highlighted by the report
from Darvas and Palmer (2012), which states there are approximately 200 public TVIs, yet
EMIS only included 107 this year. The GES has at present 45 TVIs, however there are a
number of institutions which fall under other Ministries, making it harder to ensure full
coverage. Further, it is even more challenging to capture all of the private institutions. Still, it
is unexpected to see such a large decline in the number of TVIs captured in 2012/13 than in
2011/12 (252 down to 181). This difficulty in data capture contributed to the move for EMIS to
start recording and reporting GES separately, for which this is the first year.
Table 34.
Institutions and enrolment in TVET, 2011/12 and 2012/13
2011/12
2012/13
% change
Public institutions
141
107
-24.1
Private institutions
111
74
-33.3
Total institutions
252
181
-28.2
Enrolment Public
46,694
48,845
4.6
Enrolment Private
15,609
12,651
-19.0
Total enrolment
62,303
61,496
-1.3
2011/12 figures come from the TVET 2011/12 National Profile.
Table 35 shows the breakdown of enrolment across the types of institutions. In 2012/13 there
were 36,830 students enrolled in the 45 GES TVET institutions, making up the large part of
the public enrolment.
Table 35.
Number of institutions
Enrolment statistics for TVET, 2012/13
GES
Public Total
Private
TOTAL
45
107
74
181
11
There were also found to be inconsistencies between the TVET figures reported in the EMIS TVET National
Profile 2011/12, the TVET Report for 2011/12, and the ESPR 2012. The figures quoted here for 2011/12come
from the National Profile and match the EMIS census data.
66
Enrolment
36,830
48,845
12,651
61,496
% full time
89.1
90.6
93.1
91.1
Darvas and Palmer (2012) note that only 5 to 7% of JHS graduates can expect to find a
place in either public or private TVET institutes. This access is in part due to limited demand,
both because of low social and economic demand. TVET is not as popular as general
education, carrying low prestige and an image that it does not open great opportunities into
the labour market - this is demonstrated by static enrolment in TVET over the last decade,
whilst SHS has grown markedly (from 301,120 in 2002/3 to 842,587 in 2012/13). On the
economic side, there is insufficient demand from industry for skilled labour, and Ghana is
stuck in a low skill equilibrium. So whilst youth unemployment remains a key social and
political challenge, promises that provision of skills to youth will ease new school leavers’
unemployment does not address the persistent challenges in the labor market and in private
sector development.
Gender
Females make up the smaller part of enrolment in TVET, with only 31.4% of the enrolment
altogether, compared with 45.9% at SHS. There are a higher proportion of females in private
institutions, at 55.4%, than in public TVIs at only 25.2%. The proportion of females in public
TVIs increased from 2011/12.
Table 36.
% female enrolment
Female enrolment in TVET, 2011/12 and 2012/13
2011/12
2012/13
Public institutions
19.7
25.2
Private institutions
61.4
55.4
Total institutions
30.2
31.4
Quality
In 2012/13 the TVET pupil-teacher ratio fell for both public and private institutions, with both
having an average of less than 20 students in each class.
The proportion of teachers who have professional training is far higher in the public
institutions (73.2%), and higher still in the GES (80.9%), than in the private institutions
(39.0%).
A very high proportion of the teaching staff have a technical qualification, with 94.8% in the
GES institutions and 91.5% in TVET institutions overall.
67
Table 37.
Teachers in TVET institutions, 2011/12 and 2012/13
2011/12
PTR
Public
(all)
21.1
Private
TOTAL
GES
20.8
21.0
17.4
80.9
% trained teachers
78
54.7
72.1
%
teachers
with
94.8
95.8
86
93.3
technical qualification
2012/13
Public
Private
(all)
17.7
19.3
TOTAL
18.0
73.2
39.0
66.6
91.6
91.0
91.5
COTVET was established to coordinate the supply of TVET, but Darvas and Palmer (2012)
argue there is a need for better coordination of the demand side, i.e. to better engage with
the private sector, and to collect more demand-side data, including at both the national and
institutional level. They find that there is poor relevance of formal TVET to the needs of the
labour market, noting that curricula are too theoretical, retaining highly skilled instructors is
difficult, and students are not encouraged to acquire the required practical experience
through industrial placements. Other market links such as industry liaison officers, training for
the informal sector, short courses, and post-training support are almost absent. Institutes
lack the autonomy needed to respond to market changes.
Further information on the activities of COTVET in skills development is given in Chapter 5.
68
4 INCLUSIVE AND SPECIAL EDUCATION
Summary
The Education Strategic Plan has a strategic goal to provide education for excluded children
... by including them, wherever possible, within the mainstream formal system or, only when
considered necessary, within special units or schools. As part of this, the policy of Inclusive
Education places children with mild and moderate disabilities in mainstream public schools.
Since the end of 2011, the Inclusive Education programme has expanded from 29 districts in
seven regions to 46 districts in all ten regions. In 2012/13 the number of pupils in mainstream
basic schools recorded as having special educational needs fell by 16%. This could likely be
due to inconsistencies in recording the number of children with special needs.
special units attached to mainstream schools. The number of students enrolled in special
schools in 2012/13 was 6,180, a decrease from 6,432 the year before. This decrease could
be due to difficulties in capturing enrolment data from all the special schools in Ghana.
69
4.1 Inclusive Education – Mainstreaming
As outlined in the ESP 2010-2020, the Ministry, led by the Special Education Division
(SpED), has a policy of Inclusive Education, which places children with mild and moderate
disabilities in mainstream public schools. Additional provisions are made where feasible and
appropriate. Table 38 shows that in 2012/13 the number of pupils in mainstream basic
schools recorded as having special educational needs fell by 16%. This could likely be due to
inconsistencies in recording the number of children with special needs.
Table 38.
Enrolment of children with special educational needs in
mainstream schools12
2006/7
2007/8
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
KG
5,886
3,129
3,284
3,413
3,123
3,636
2,901
Primary
20,730
11,613
11,081
11,035
9,804
11,112
9,847
JHS
BASIC
TOTAL
8,113
4,172
4,399
3,814
4,489
5,027
3,848
34,729
18,914
18,764
18,262
17,416
19,775
16,596
Analysis by UNICEF using the 2010 National Population and Housing census indicates the
inequitable access to school that children with special needs face. Whilst around 10% of
children with no disability were not attending school, for children with a disability this
increases to around 19%. The proportion of children out of school increases further for
children with speech disabilities (over 30%) and physical or intellectual disabilities (each over
26%).
Since the end of 2011, the Inclusive Education (IE) programme has expanded from 29
districts in seven regions to 46 districts in all ten regions. The IE programme includes training
for district staff, headteachers and teachers in working with children with special educational
needs and the appropriate pedagogy, and sensitisation for community members. Teachers
then provide school-based INSET for their colleagues. As part of IE, five districts have been
provided with basic screening tools for assessment of basic impairments, and another seven
will soon follow. SpED are also coordinating situation needs assessments at the district level,
to identify the challenges, activities and responsibilities for achieving inclusive education
within the district.
12
The data for 2012/13 is taken from EMIS and refers to children in public and private schools who did not
consider themselves to be a special school. Children are categorised as having an impairment (visual, hearing or
speech), or being physically or intellectually disabled.
70
4.2 Special Schools and Units
Table 39.
Enrolment in Special
Schools – Total
Children enrolled in special schools
2006/7
2007/8
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
5,092
5,654
6,308
6,900
5,504
6,432
6,180
special units attached to mainstream schools. Table 39 shows that the number of students
enrolled in special schools in 2012/13 was 6,180, a decrease on the year before (source:
SpED). This decrease could be due to difficulties in capturing enrolment data from all the
special schools in Ghana13. A breakdown of enrolment by type of special school is given in
Table 40.
Table 40.
Enrolment in special schools by type of school, 2012/13
Type of special school
Number of schools
Enrolment
Education for the hearing impaired
14
4,069
Education for the visually impaired
6
660
Education for the intellectually disabled
11
831
Integrated senior high schools
10
620
Total
36*
6,180
*The total schools is less than the sum because some schools cover more than one
unit/type of education.
The special schools receive full government funding (tuition and feed) and receive Feeding
Grants. Pupils in the special units do not receive additional funding, and only receive feeding
if the school is part of the Ghana Schools Feeding Programme. SpED would like the unit
schools to be included automatically in any expansions of the GSFP or for these schools to
be covered by the Feeding Grant.
Whilst enrolment of children with special educational needs has been increasing, a report by
UNICEF (2012) notes the socio-cultural barriers which still stifle enrolment of children with
disabilities. There are high levels of stigmatization associated with disability in Ghana, which
can lead parents to hide children at home and prevent them attending school. A low value is
often placed on the capacity and potential of children with special education needs. Those
children who are in school may not receive the adequate support and attention from
teachers, and facilities which are not disability friendly can cause children to drop out from
school.
Special Education Programmes
SpED carried out a number of additional activities in 2012, for example:
13
As at June 2013, four Special Schools had not submitted their updated enrolment data to SpED.
71




205 resource teachers were trained on management of students with low vision.
Teaching and learning materials including assistive devices and Braille materials
worth GH¢ 1.9 million were provided for students with special needs in inclusive
education settings.
Hearing aids and ear moulds were provided for 6,000 students in schools for the
deaf.
Sensitization workshops to promote inclusive education were organized in twelve
districts across the country.
72
5 NON-FORMAL EDUCATION
Summary
The ESP 2010-2020 strategic goal for non-formal education is to provide opportunities for
those outside the formal education system to have free access to meaningful high-quality
user-friendly education and training, whether through inclusive or complementary provision,
approved or informal apprenticeships, distance education or technical and vocational skills
development initiatives.
In 2012 the National Functional Literacy Programme, led by Non-Formal Education Division,
established 2,056 classes under Batch 18. This accounted for 51,257 learners, of which 64%
are female, demonstrating the sector’s commitment to particularly target women.
The National Apprenticeship Programme (NAP), led by the Council for Technical and
Vocational Education and Training, grew from 1,600 apprentices in 2011 to 5,000 in 2012 in
the trade areas of Garments, Cosmetology, Electronics, and Auto Mechanics.
73
5.1 Non-formal Education Division
The mandate of NFED is to provide non-formal education to all Ghanaians especially women
and the rural poor aged 15 years and above. Their focus has been on basic functional
literacy. The National Functional Literacy Programme (NFLP) is a 21-month cycle of teaching
and learning in local language literacy (15 Ghanaian languages). Since it began in 1992, 18
batches have been enrolled with over 2.9million learners, of which 62% are female.
In 2012 NFED continued with the NFLP:





In Batch 18, 2,056 classes were established, with 51,257 learners enrolled.
Of those enrolled 64% are female, demonstrating NFED’s commitment to particularly
target women.
Of the 2,056 classes, 1,400 were facilitated by volunteers.
Classes were spread across all ten regions. The regions with the highest enrolment
as a proportion of the population were Northern, Upper West and Upper East. This
conforms with the 2010 census findings that the three northern regions have less
than 50% literacy in the population aged 11 years and older.
The Batch 18 enrolment data is reported by supervisors to NFED. It has not been
possible to carry out monitoring visits to verify the figures, or to accurately monitor
drop-out rates since 2010 due to lack of funds.
Table 41.
Batch
Year
Learners enrolled in NFLP by Year and Gender
Enrolled
male
female
total
% Female
13
2006/ 08
12,164
19,204
31,368
61%
14
2007/ 09
11,573
19,612
31,185
63%
15
2008/ 10
14,813
24,041
38,854
62%
16
2009/ 11
17,224
24,796
42,020
59%
17
2010/ 12
18,904
31,777
50,681
63%
18
2012/ 14
18,459
32,798
51,257
64%
19**
2013/ 15
14,000
21,000
35,000
60%
**Batch 19 (2013/2015) figures are targets since recruitment is ongoing.
74
Table 42.
Learner enrolment in local language literacy NFLP, 2012, by
region and gender
Enrolment
male
female
total
As % of region
population
280
1054
5556
6610
0.14%
Brong Ahafo
150
2341
1597
3938
0.17%
Central
150
805
2518
3323
0.15%
Eastern
246
2043
4900
6943
0.26%
Greater Accra
130
579
2062
2641
0.07%
Northern
300
3995
4029
8024
0.32%
Upper East
240
2321
3765
6086
0.58%
Upper West
258
2973
3229
6202
0.88%
Volta
155
1041
2832
3873
0.18%
Western
147
1307
2310
3617
0.15%
2,056
18,459
32,798
51,257
0.21%
36%
64%
Region
Classes
Ashanti
Total
Gender split


Recruitment for Batch 19 in 2013 has started, with a target of 35,000 learners. This
year, NFED is expanding the programme to include 30,000 learners in English
language literacy, and 5,000 learners in local language literacy.
Recruitment happens at the local level and is encouraged to have a bias of 60%
female enrolment.
Other recent activities at NFED include:






Training of 1,400 volunteer facilitators.
Broadcast of complementary learning programmes on 18 community radio stations
nationwide.
Partnership with International Labour Organisation to develop a curriculum and
training for out-of-school children in cocoa-growing areas.
Initial development of a draft Non-Formal Education Policy document, which will be
shared at a stakeholder workshop in 2013.
Preparation of a Cabinet Memo in order for NFED to attain Agency status.
Finalizing the Scheme of Service document for Public Service Commissions’
approval.
NFED is interested in developing the occupational skills of its learners to enable them to
access employment and entrepreneurial opportunities.
5.2 Distance learning and open schooling
Another aspect of non-formal education as in the ESP 2010-2020 is open and distance
learning, as overseen by the Centre for National Distance Learning and Open Schooling
75
(CENDLOS). In 2012, key activities towards promoting and expanding distance education
include:




Production and transmission of audio-visual lessons in SHS 3 Physics, Chemistry,
Biology and Integrated Science of half-hour duration on GTV.
73 prison inmates of the CENDLOS Nsawam and Kumasi Prison study centres sat for
examinations including BECE, WASSCE and NVTI.
27 teachers from selected Junior High Schools were trained in Open Resource for
English Language Teaching (ORELT);
21 Principals, administrators and lecturers from five Colleges of Education were
trained in dual-mode delivery methodologies.
5.3 COTVET
The Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training coordinates and oversees
all aspects of TVET in the country. This includes formulation of policy on skills development.
Whilst TVET in Ghana is often associated with the outcomes of formal public TVET, in fact
this sector only accounts for less than 10% of technical and vocational skills acquired
(Darvas and Palmer, 2012). Some of Ghana's TVET comes from education, of which some is
regulated by other Government agencies; some is privately provided and the majority comes
from on the job training in informal apprenticeships. Darvas and Palmer note that the informal
apprenticeship system is the largest provider of skills training, training in excess of 440,000
youth at any one time; there are about 4 informal apprentices for every trainee in formal
public and private training centers combined. The National Apprenticeship Program (NAP)
attempts to support informal apprenticeship training in Ghana, a relatively small-scale
program serving about 1% of the 440,000 youth in informal apprenticeship.


In 2012 COTVET ran competency based training (CBT) for five technical institutes in
Electronics, Electrical Installation, Welding and Fabrication, Auto Mechanics,
Mechanical Engineering, Catering, and Fashion and Designing.
In total 80 industrial stakeholders were trained in Workplace Experience Learning
(WEL), and 26 CBT graduates were employed in WEL schemes.
National Apprenticeship Programme


The National Apprenticeship Programme (NAP) grew from 1,600 apprentices in 2011
to 5,000 in 2012 in the trade areas of Garments, Cosmetology, Electronics, and Auto
Mechanics. The regional breakdown of NAP is given below.
COTVET aims to have 8,000 people trained under NAP in 2013.
76
Table 43.
Region
National Apprenticeship Programme by region, 2012
Female
Male
Total
Greater Accra
650
370
1,020
Ashanti
660
340
1,000
Volta
300
150
450
Central
275
155
430
Northern
280
140
420
Eastern
210
200
410
Western
280
90
370
Brong Ahafo
250
100
350
Upper East
250
100
350
Upper West
Total
120
80
200
3,275
1,725
5,000
Skills Development Fund
The Skills Development Fund is a challenge fund established to ensure sustainable financing
of technical and vocational skills development. In 2012, 623 proposals were submitted to the
SDF, of which 59 were recommended to the SDF committee and eventually 22 were
approved.
Darvas and Palmer (2012) argue that in the long term, the SDF will only be sustainable if
financed by a levy on industry and enterprises in general. The levy would take the form of a
payroll tax for both public and private sector entities. For the levy to be successful in Ghana,
employers must be incentivized to participate, through tax credits for instance. In addition,
the levy should not be limited to industries, but also include small and microenterprises and
the government.
In the meantime the SDF is supported by seedfunding from the World Bank and DANIDA.
The World Bank funding comes from the Ghana Skills and Technology Development Project
(GSTDP). The GoG also contributed funds to the SDF from GETfund.
Ghana Skills Development Initiative (GSDI)
The Ghana Skills Development Initiative (GSDI) provides technical assistance to COTVET,
selected trade associations and training institutions. In order to upgrade the skills and
qualifications in traditional vocational training, the project supports COTVETs’ innovative
approach to introduce quality standards for the apprenticeship system. Furthermore GSDI
helps Trade Associations and vocational schools to develop and offer additional short-term
training courses for Apprentices and Master Crafts persons. German Development
Corporation (GIZ) are providing 6million euros in technical assistance. In the first phase three
regions are being piloted: Greater Accra, Volta and Northern; and five sectors: Electronics,
Automotive, Tailoring & dressmaking, Cosmetology & hairdressing, and Construction.
Special attention is given to women’s skills development not only by supporting traditional
female trades, but also by promoting women’s involvement in male-dominated trade areas.
77
6 TERTIARY EDUCATION
Summary
The ESP 2010-2020 strategic objective for Tertiary is to Increase equitable access to high
quality tertiary education that provides relevant courses to young adults within Colleges of
Education, Polytechnics and Universities, and for research and intellectual stimulus. The
National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) continued to expand access to quality tertiary
education in 2012. The annual census of tertiary institutions is currently ongoing so this
report presents data up to 2011/12.14 Progress against the key targets in the ESP 2010-2020
(Volume 2) is shown in the table below. All indicators have been met ahead of time.
Table 44.
Progress against ESP 2010-2020 targets for Tertiary Education
Targets
2011/12
Annual intake in CoEs
5,000
by 2015
9,373 (public CoEs)
Annual intake in polytechnics
10,000
by 2015
Annual intake in universities
12,000
by 2016
13,966
13,464 public universities
23,291 private institutions
40%
by 2015
40.6%
20,000
by 2020
9,807
% of all tertiary new entrants which
are female
Tertiary non-teaching staff
The National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) continued to expand access to quality
tertiary education in 2012. Enrolment in public universities decreased from 115,452 in
2010/11 to 109,278 in 2011/12. However enrolment in the polytechnics, Colleges of
Education and private tertiary institutions increased.
both public universities and polytechnics, now standing at 39.1% in these institutions
combined.
14
Data comes from NCTE’s National Summary of Statistics for Accredited Tertiary Education Institutions,
2011/12 Academic Year (unless otherwise stated)
78
6.1 Access
The number of institutions accredited increased from 136 in 2010/11 to 142 in 2011/12.
Table 45.
Number of public and private tertiary institutions, 2010/11 and
2011/12
Institution
2010/11
2011/12
Public Universities/university colleges
7
6
Public Specialized/Professional Colleges
7
9
Chartered Private Tertiary Institutions
3
3
Private Tertiary Institutions
51
55
Polytechnics
10
10
Public Colleges of Education
38
38
Private Colleges of Education
3
3
Public Nursing Training Colleges
13
10
Private Nursing Training Colleges
4
5
Public Colleges of Agric
3
Total
136
142
Enrolment in public universities decreased from 115,452 in 2010/11 to 109,278 in 2011/12.
However enrolment in the polytechnics, Colleges of Education and private tertiary institutions
increased.
Table 46.
Enrolment in tertiary education, by year
2006/7
2007/8
2008/9
2009/10 2010/11
2011/12
Public Institutions
117,140
154,446
168,793
179,998
185,268
202,063
Public Universities
88,445
93,973
102,548
107,058
115,452
109,278
Polytechnics
28,695
34,448
38,656
46,079
43,113
47,294
26,025
27,589
26,861
26,703
27,580
Colleges of Education (Public)
Specialized/Professional Institutions*
*
*
*
*
*
14,951
Other*
*
*
*
*
*
2,960
32,275
59,899
Private Institutions
*
Enrolment in Private Universities
*
*
*
*
32,275
56,581
Other*
*
*
*
*
*
3,318
217,543
261,962
Total tertiary enrolment
* Data not available for previous years, so does not necessarily indicate zero enrolment.
79
Of the public institutions, female enrolment (the proportion of students who are female) is
highest in the Colleges of Education at 42%. In 2011/12 the proportion of female students fell
slightly in the public universities and polytechnics.
Figure 37. Female enrolment in public tertiary institutions
Colleges of Education
The ESP 2010-2020 sets a target for an annual intake of 5,000 in the CoEs by 2015. This
target has been well met, with 9,373 new entrants enrolled in the CoEs in 2011/12, of which
42.7% were female. The deployment of newly trained teachers to basic schools in 2012 is
discussed in section 7.5.
Distance education
In adherence to the Government’s commitment to open and distance education
opportunities, in 2011/12 enrolment in the Distance Education Programme increased by
19.5% over the previous year.
Table 47.
Student enrolment for distance learning by institutions, 2007/08 –
2011/12
Source: NCTE Budget Performance for 2012 and Outlook for 2013
Institution
2007/08
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
U.G
906
2,562
4,816
7,210
8,331
KNUST
322
1,041
2,186
3,165
4,787
UCC
13,637
17,096
13,586
19,007
29,914
UEW
7,954
11,295
17,001
23,607
20,264
TOTAL
22,819
31,994
37,589
52,989
63,296
80
81
6.2 Quality
Teaching staff
The public universities have the highest proportion of full time teaching staff with PHD level
qualifications, at 38%. In the polytechnics and private institutions offering degree
programmes, more than 60% of full time teaching staff have Masters. In the Colleges of
Education, the largest portion of staff have Bachelor’s degrees (49%), followed by Masters
(35%).
Figure 38. Highest qualification of full time teaching staff in tertiary institutions,
2011/12
Promoting Science and Technical Education
both public universities and polytechnics to give an overall rate of 39.1% (see Table 48). The
generally low proportion enrolled in sciences may be due to the high popularity of other
subjects such as business and education. Data on the field of study of all tertiary students
shows that only 15.5% are enrolled in programmes of ‘arts/social sciences’.
Table 48.
Enrolment in Science and Technical Programmes, by year
2007/8
2008/9
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
35.6
36.9
34.6
30.7
39.1
Public Universities
34.0
41.4
Polytechnics
22.8
33.8
Enrol. in science and technical disciplines (%)
Public Universities and Polytechnics
Source: NCTE Budget Performance for 2012 and Outlook for 2013
Other key activities to expand the tertiary sector in 2012 included:
82


The National Accreditation Board (NAB) increased the private accredited tertiary
institutions, leading to 184 accredited programmes. This supports the objective to
increase enrolment and cost-sharing at tertiary level.
A Central Research Fund was set up with GH¢ 2m from GETfund as seed money.
83
7 EDUCATION MANAGEMENT
Summary
weakness, opportunities and threats of the EMIS Data management system. A
recommendation of the report has led to development of a dedicated webpage for the EMIS
database. The page allows users to download raw data and ready-to-use tables.
The GES is reviewing and building the capacity for decentralised management. Training on
reporting requirements and analysis is being provided, and recommendations are being
considered to further improve district reporting. The three new bodies to strengthen
decentralised management are at various levels of progress, with the National Inspectorate
Board more advanced than the National Teaching Council or National Council on Curriculum
and Assessment.
Teacher absenteeism continues to be a strong obstacle to quality teaching and learning in
Ghana, particularly in public basic schools. The School Report Cards now being rolled out
with district-level software will allow schools and districts to better monitor schools’ progress
in aspects including teacher attendance. A preliminary analysis of data from 41 districts in
the first term of 2012/13 found that on teachers have only around 80% attendance on
average.
Grant (GPEG). GPEG is a three year grant for US$75.5 million, implemented by the Ghana
Education Service in 57 deprived districts in eight out of ten regions. The project
development objective is to improve the planning, monitoring and delivery of basic education
services in the deprived districts of Ghana.
national level management and no duplication was found.
84
7.1 EMIS
weakness, opportunities and threats of the EMIS Data management system (Mehta, 2012).
The review was based on field visits to four regional and eight district offices of education,
and discussions with MoE/SRIMPR officers. Some key recommendations coming out of the
review are given below.





Carry out wider publicity (using the electronic and print media) of the annual school
census in order to expand the coverage to more private schools.
In order to build technical capacity at the district level, it is suggested that software is
developed for training. This itself requires renovation of EMIS rooms with computer
facilities, anti-virus and internet access. The National Information Technology Agency
could be approached for this.
Quality assurance of the questionnaires could be done by giving circuit supervisors
responsibility for ensuring correct and complete responses, and by carrying out
sample checks.
In view of the problems that the District EMIS is facing with regard to database backup, time-series database, visits of national EMIS twice a year to districts and absence
of a reporting module, the idea of web-based data processing (data entry and
dissemination) for EMIS can resolve many of the limitations. However, this requires
upgrading of hardware, software and expertise of EMIS teams to manage the system.
In response to this finding, a dedicated webpage has been developed by SRIMPR
and the GES with ready-to-use tables online. The webpage allows downloading of
raw data which can be used by researchers for empirical studies. The districts may
also download and use the database through their EMIS software. Ready-to-use
tables which are required to develop the Annual District Performance Reports can
also be made available.
Strengthen dissemination and utilisation of the EMIS results by building capacity at all
levels. In particular, build the regional EMIS units, and train circuit supervisors in
interpretation of the School Profile to allow communication of the results to teachers
and communities. This will then assist planning at the school level.
The final point reinforces the findings of a workshop held by the EMIS team with head
teachers. They found that headteachers were improperly (or not at all) briefed by district
statistics officers and circuit supervisors in completing the data capture format and in
interpreting the School Profile.15
7.2 Decentralised management of pre-tertiary education
GES
15
A workshop for 30 headteachers was held on the Schools Record Management System in August 2011. The
workshop went through the annual school census questionnaire.
85
The Advisory Unit of Decentralised Education Management (AUDEM) in the GES carried out
an analysis of the districts’ annual performance reports (ADPRs) in 2011/12 as compared
with 2010/11. The ADPRs were assigned scores based on a set of evaluation questions,
such as using the updated template, accurate data, answering all questions and analysis of
indicators. Some key conclusions are given below:



In 2012, all but one district submitted their ADPR to the regional offices and
headquarters, giving a great improvement in submission rate from 79.4% to 99.4%.
Overall, the quality slightly deteriorated on the year before. Looking by regions, Upper
East achieved the highest score, with Greater Accra the lowest. Northern Region had
the greatest improvement.
Positive scores were found for questions which suggested an enhanced
understanding of reporting requirements. However, ability to analyse the indicators
and report on the financial status of the district had deteriorated over the year.
The report then makes a number of recommendations for improving the ADPRs:




Regional Directors should be given the ability to apply financial sanctions to their
districts who fail to comply with reporting requirements.
AUDEM’s training programme on District Education Operational Planning and
Performance Review (DEOPPR) should be continuously provided and use practical
examples. Trainees should be required to contribute to the ADPR and check and sign
the final version.
The evaluation scores could be distributed to use peer pressure as motivation to
improve.
There should be progress with creating online data entry and access to the EMIS
database, in order to improve consistency of data reporting.
Management activities carried out under the GES in 2012 include:
 A total number of 952 top management personnel from 119 districts received
management training at GIMPA whilst an additional 238 officers also received
training in procurement at the same institute.
 School Management Committees (SMC) and School Boards were provided with
management training programmes to enable them to function effectively and
efficiently.
Progress of the new agencies
The Education Act 2008 (Act 778) included the establishment of three new bodies to support
the decentralised management of quality pre-tertiary education: the National Inspectorate
Board, the National Council on Curriculum and Assessment, and the National Teaching
Council. A brief note on their progress and status up to May 2013 is given below.
National Inspectorate Board (NIB)
The NIB is responsible for the external and independent monitoring and evaluation of school
quality and performance at the pre-tertiary level. As part of efforts to improve the quality of
education delivery through a more effective system of periodic inspection and supervision of
schools, the following key milestones were attained in 2012:
86
a. A revised school inspection framework, survey instruments and quality indicators, and
guidelines for school inspection and code of conduct for inspectors have been
finalised.
b. Twenty Lead Inspectors have been appointed to head the inspection panels of the
Board.
c. Over 300 Team (Part-Time) Inspectors have been identified as inspection panel
members through a nation-wide selection process and trained on the use, analysis,
and interpretation of the newly-developed inspection instruments.
d. Key education sector stakeholders (GES, GNAT, CHASS, APTI, Regional and District
Directors of Education, etc.) have been briefed on the mandate of the Board and their
views solicited and incorporated into both the quality indicators for evaluating school
performance and the inspection guidelines and protocols.
In the coming year NIB will be disseminating booklets of the quality indicators to all basic
schools, training the inspectors and carrying out flash unannounced inspection visits to
schools.
National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) and National Teaching
Council (NTC)
The NCCA was established to advise the Minister of Education on issues of curriculum and
assessment at the pre-tertiary level of education. The National Teachers Council (NTC) is
responsible for registration and issuance of license to teachers. The NCCA is made up of
representatives of 21 member organisations and the NTC is made up of 15 members.
Activities to date include:
a. Since its inauguration in January 2012, the NCCA has met three times, and will
continue to meet at least quarterly. The NTC has only met once, in February 2012.
Ensuring regular meetings has been inhibited by the lack of funds released to the
Ministry.
b. The Human Resources Division of MoE in collaboration with the Public Services
Commission has interviewed applicants for the Executive and Deputy Executive
Secretaries of both the NCCA and NTC.
c. The Ministry has allocated an office for use by both NCCA and NTC, which has been
renovated and furnished. The office is not yet occupied as the secretariat is still being
recruited. USAID provided each of the three new agencies with five computers, yet to
be installed in the NCCA/NTC offices.
d. The NCCA has set-up operational procedures including four sub-committees:
Assessment; Curriculum; Textbooks and teaching and learning materials; and
Finance and Administration. The first annual report with recommendations from the
NCCA has been drafted.
7.3 Teacher Absenteeism
Teacher absenteeism continues to be a substantial barrier to quality education in Ghana.
Recently the sector has initiated the first comprehensive tool to collect data and regularly
monitor the level of absenteeism - the School Report Card. This will be completed for the first
and third semesters each year, and the results presented on the school noticeboard to raise
transparency and accountability. See below for a review of the first SRC data collected in
2013.
87
At a local level, districts are well aware of the problems of teach absenteeism and lateness,
as reported in their Annual District Performance Reports. For example, Savelugu-Nanton in
the Northern Region made the following points in its ADPR 2013:





Absenteeism was found to be pronounced in the first week of the semester, on
Fridays and Mondays due to most teachers commuting from Tamale. These teachers
therefore had a tendency to start the weekends on Friday and return on Monday.
Pay-week and payment schedules of financial institutions were found to affect
absenteeism.
Lateness to schools was found to be due largely to the teachers who commute and
rely on getting free means of transport to school.
Poor commitment and dedication to work by teachers was found to be the underlying
cause of teacher absenteeism.
Circuit supervisors' reports included regular occurrences of teacher absenteeism and
lateness; poor teacher preparation for lessons; poor use of instructional hours; and
headteachers' lack of will to apply appropriate sanctions to recalcitrant teachers.
The Greater Accra Annual Regional Review 2013 also mentions teachers commuting long
distances due to lack of accommodation as a reason for absenteeism and lateness, as well
as giving traffic as a reason.
Research into the quality of education in the three northern regions undertook observations
at 54 schools in six districts, and found a number of reasons given by headteachers for
teacher absenteeism (Associates for Change, 2013). Some common ones were teacher
sickness, attending social issues, salary issues (including delay and collection), distance
education, transport, workshops/meetings, and lack of decent accommodation. It was felt
that lack of enforced disciplinary procedures by the District Education offices, as well as very
little onsite supervision by circuit supervisors, was a contributor to the lack of commitment
from teachers.
Savelugu-Nanton in its ADPR identified measures to help curtail the problem of teacher
absenteeism, poor punctuality and performance. Such measures include unannounced mass
school monitoring visits by staff of the directorate and mass unannounced rotational visits by
all Circuit Supervisors to one circuit once in a week. The objective of these visits is to inspect
lesson notes preparation, use of instructional hours, and teacher absenteeism to take the
appropriate corrective sanctions.
Teacher Absenteeism in the School Report Cards
School Report Cards (SRCs) and the new district-level software were rolled out in public
basic schools in the 57 deprived districts of Ghana in April 2013. They were filled in for the
first semester 2012/13 (September to December 2012).
This analysis corresponds to the SRC data received for 41 districts for which district-level
summaries were available in early June 2013. Table 49 gives the number of districts who
responded, by region.
88
Table 49.
Region
Ashanti
Brong Ahafo
Eastern
Northern
Upper East
Upper West
Volta
Western
Total
Districts submitting SRC data, May 2013
Districts with district summaries
1
6
1
15
6
7
4
1*
41*
Total deprived districts
4
8
1
19
8
8
5
4
57
* Bia from Western Region also submitted SRCs but the district summary was not available
at the time of writing.
Data on teacher attendance
Schools had to fill in the following information for each teacher: number of days present,
number of days absent with permission, number of days absent without permission 16. The
district level summaries show the total number of days teachers were present, and the total
number of days teachers were expected (i.e. 70 days per teacher for one semester).
Together these can give a total attendance rate. Table 50 below gives the key indicators: the
overall attendance rate (for the sum total of the 41 districts), the average district, the highest
and the lowest district.
Table 50.
Teacher attendance at the district level (41 deprived districts)
Overall attendance rate
Average district attendance rate
Highest district attendance rate
Lowest district attendance rate
KG
78%
78%
90%
65%
Primary
79%
79%
90%
66%
JHS
82%
81%
91%
58%
Table 50 shows that the average district teacher attendance rate increases marginally as the
level of education increases, from 78% at KG, to 79% at Primary and 81% at JHS. This
implies that at all three levels, teachers are absent roughly 20% of the time, or in other words
one day per week. From the district summaries it is not possible to tell what proportion of the
absenteeism was granted permission.
The highest recorded attendance rates were 90% for both KG and Primary, and 91% at JHS.
Interestingly the lowest rates were more varied, at 65% for KG, 66% for Primary and much
lower at 58% for JHS.
16
For JHS this was only captured for teachers of Mathematics, English and Ghanaian languages.
89
Table 51 below gives more detail about the highest and lowest performing districts for
teacher attendance rates.
Table 51.
Top 5 and bottom 5 districts' teacher attendance rates, by level of
education
Level
KG
Primary
JHS
Top 5
District
Region
Kintampo
Brong
North
Ahafo
Bottom 5
Region
Rate
District
Rate
90%
Wa East
Upper West
65%
Krachi West
Volta
89%
Chereponi
Northern
68%
Nkwanta South
Volta
87%
Wa West
Upper West
69%
Ejura
Sekyidomase
Ashanti
86%
Brong Ahafo
69%
Central Gonja
Northern
85%
Northern
71%
Krachi West
Volta
90%
Chereponi
Northern
66%
Kpandai
Northern
86%
Wa East
Upper West
69%
Ejura
Sekyidomase
Ashanti
85%
Kassena
Nankana East
Upper East
72%
Nkwanta South
Volta
85%
Jirapa
Upper West
72%
Kintampo
South
Brong
Ahafo
85%
AtebubuAmantin
Brong Ahafo
72%
Krachi West
Volta
91%
Bongo
Upper East
58%
TolonKumbungu
Northern
89%
Chereponi
Northern
65%
Nkwanta North
Volta
89%
ZabzuguTatale
Northern
68%
Northern
88%
Wa East
Upper West
72%
Ashanti
87%
Karaga
Northern
75%
Yendi
Municipal
Ejura
Sekyidomase
AtebubuAmantin
ZabzuguTatale
In the top performing districts, Kwachi West (Volta) and Ejura Sekyidomase (Ashanti) are top
performers at all three levels of education. Nkwanta South (Volta) also appears in both the
KG and Primary top fives. Regions with districts in the top five are Brong Ahafo, Ashanti,
Northern and Volta, meaning no districts from Upper East, Upper West, Eastern or Western
regions made it into the top performers (note that Western and Eastern each only have one
district submitted).
At the lowest end of performance, we see that Wa East (Upper West) and Chereponi
(Northern) are in the bottom five at all three levels of education, in fact being the lowest two
at KG and Primary. Zabzugu-Tatale (Northern) and Atebubu-Amantin (Brong Ahafo) appear
in the bottom five at two out of three levels. At all three levels the bottom five districts come
from four regions: Brong Ahafo, Northern, Upper West and Upper East.
90
7.4 Ghana Partnership for Education Grant
Grant (GPEG). The grant agreement was signed on November 22, 2012 and became
effective on February 15, 2013. As of May 2013, the first $14.9m of the grant has been
received.
GPEG is a three year grant for US$75.5 million, implemented by the Ghana Education
Service in 57 deprived districts in eight out of ten regions. The project development objective
is to improve the planning, monitoring and delivery of basic education services in the
deprived districts of Ghana. The project aims to support the decentralized mechanism for
basic education expenditure. Given the way salaries absorb most of the education budget,
the GPEG will be used only for non-salary expenditures. In addition, the objectives and
activities of GPEG are aligned with the Education Strategic Plan 2010-2020.
The GPEG is expected to benefit approximately 6,600 schools and 1.7 million students (KGJHS). Approximately 8,000 untrained teachers may participate in a distance learning course
to upgrade their credentials (UTDBE) and an additional 40,000 teachers and many education
staff will benefit from the project.
There are three components to GPEG: the first provides Sub-Grants to deprived districts to
support key education objectives. The second component provides sub-grants to schools in
the deprived districts.
The third component focuses on programme management,
institutional strengthening and monitoring and evaluation of project activities.



Component 1: Grants to Deprived Districts ($42 million). Grants will be allocated
to districts to support the four pillars of equity, access, quality and management
improvements as planned in their annual programmes of work (APW). The APWs set
out activities chosen by districts to meet local needs, aligned with annual district
performance reports and operational plans. Out of this $15m has been allocated
specifically to upgrading up to 8,000 untrained teachers through the Untrained
Teacher Diploma in Basic Education (UTDBE). The DfID supported Girls’ PASS
scholarship programme is also being distributed through the district grants.
Component 2: School Grants ($22 million). Public basic schools in the deprived
districts will receive grants (averaging $4 per pupil) to supplement the ongoing
capitation grants, with an explicit focus on improving access and quality.
Component 3: Project Management and Institutional Strengthening ($4.6
million). This provides the resources for management (particularly supervision of
decentralized services), monitoring and evaluation and impact evaluation.
The districts’ APWs for 2013 were approved in March 2013. Tables 52 and 53 show the
breakdown of funds for 2013 by pillar and level of education (excluding funds ring-fenced for
UTDBE and Girls’ PASS). Approximately 75% of funds are targeted at improving access and
quality of education. In fact the two most popular activities in terms of allocation of
expenditure come under access, and account for 27% of all funds: Essential supplies for
schools (chalkboards, furniture etc); and Sanitary facilities (toilets, urinals). Over 47% of
funds are allocated to Primary schools.
91
Table 52.
pillar
Pillar
Districts’ Annual Programmes of Work – allocation of funds by
Total (GH c)
Percentage
Access
6,907,849
40.39
Quality
6,001,290
35.09
Gender
1,443,710
8.44
Management
Total
2,749,169
17,102,018
16.08
100.00
Excluding funds for UTDBE and Girls’ PASS
Table 53.
Districts’ Annual Programmes of Work – allocation of funds by
level of education
Level of Education
Total (GH c)
Percentage
KG
2,115,171
12.37
PRIMARY
8,097,057
47.35
JHS
4,140,621
24.21
MANAGEMENT
2,749,169
16.08
TOTAL
17,102,018
100
Excluding funds for UTDBE and Girls’ PASS
Districts are mandated to carry out a number of activities under Management with their
grants. These activities include training, monitoring and supporting headteachers with school
grant planning and expenditure, and training circuit supervisors to improve reporting on
school grants and the school report cards. Other management activities were chosen by less
than 20% of districts, such as management training for circuit supervisors to improve school
supervision, and building capacity of school management committees.
7.5 Education Sector Working Group – donor mapping exercise
national level management and no duplication was found. A brief summary of the activities is
given below. The majority of activities were targeted at basic education.
There are a number of Donors that are providing support to education yet have not provided
information to the Ministry and the Sector Working Group of their activities and alignment
with ESP priorities. These include KOICA, the Embassy of Israel, and the French Embassy
and DANIDA.
Access
92
DfID, IBIS, JICA, UNICEF and USAID were found to have activities to improve access to
quality education. UNICEF, IBIS and DfID are supporting activities to reach out-of-school
children, particularly through Complementary Basic Education programmes. These aim to
provide fast-track and accessible schooling to out of school primary-aged children, allowing
them to then enter mainstream schooling once basic literacy and numeracy skills have been
learnt. JICA and USAID are involved in construction projects to improve access to basic
education.
Quality
Again all the donor agencies are involved in supporting improving the quality of education in
Ghana. Ensuring availability of trained teachers, regular refreshing and updating of teacher
in-service training and practice of child-centred pedagogy are objectives of programmes
under UNICEF, USAID, DfID, IBIS and JICA. USAID are also supporting a four year
programme of technical assistance to the Government in assessment, which will include the
National Education Assessment and the introduction of Early Grade Reading and
Mathematics Assessments.
Gender
Activities to bridge the gender gap tend to focus on access to basic education for girls in the
deprived districts. USAID and DfID have supported scholarship packages for girls, which
include provision of uniforms, shoes, bags and stationery. UNICEF are also trying to increase
girls’ demand for education and IBIS are supporting model schools for girls.
UNICEF and USAID are putting significant support into this priority area. UNICEF have
supported the roll out of inclusive education to 12 deprived districts, enhancing the capacity
of schools to identify, care and provide for children with special educational needs. USAID
are supporting teachers to be able to test children for mild and medium hearing and vision
challenges.
Science and Technical Education
GIZ is providing technical assistance to COTVET, trade associations and technical institutes
as part of the Ghana Skills Development Initiative. Amongst other activities, the project is
looking at women’s skills development and quality standards for the apprenticeship system.
Mainstreaming issues of HIV/AIDS and life skills
UNICEF is supporting the operation of HIV/AIDS and life skills education in basic schools.
Management
There are a substantial number of activities aimed at improving education management in
Ghana. A selection of activities aim at strengthening school governance and supervision at
district, circuit and school-level, such as USAID’s Partnership for Accountable Governance in
Education and work by IBIS. JICA are supporting the GES’s capacity for decentralised
education management at all levels through technical assistance. The Ghana Partnership for
Education Grant also supports the decentralised management of basic education, and in
93
tandem with GPEG a number of donors supported the Government in rolling out School
Report Cards in the deprived districts, to improve schools supervision, planning and
accountability.
94
8 EDUCATION FINANCE
Summary
Spending on education continued its increasing trend in 2012, with a total expenditure of
GH¢ 6.0billion in 2012, up from GH¢ 3.6billion in 2011. In 2012 education expenditure was
equal to 8.4% of GDP. The largest source of funding is the Government of Ghana (76% of all
funds), however of this 97% is allocated to compensation, leading to heavy reliance on other
sources to pay for goods and services and assets, which make up 21% and 5% of total
expenditure respectively.
Whilst all levels of education saw an increase in expenditure between 2011 and 2012, subsectors which saw a substantial increase in share of the total spending were pre-primary,
JHS and SHS. Primary level education had a notable decrease in its proportion of spending,
from 34.6% to 25.9%, however in absolute terms its spending increased.
There was an overrun in GoG expenditure from the allocated budget in all items of spending:
compensation, goods and services and assets. The execution rate of expenditure against
budget was particularly high for assets at 2,412%. This was largely accounted for by the
reallocation of planned expenditure from GETfund into GoG funds, particularly for Schools
Under Trees and SHS infrastructure.
Analysis of unit costs showed that costs per pupil increased for all levels of education
between 2011 and 2012. The largest increase was in Pre-Primary (KG and crèche), which
increased by 327% in 2012. Unit costs increase as the level of education increases, from
GH¢ 341 per pupil in Pre-Primary up to GH¢ 2,693 in Tertiary (2011 expenditure).
95
8.1 Trends in Education Expenditure
Total expenditure on education in 2012 was GH¢ 5.7billion, representing a 60% increase
from GH¢ 3.6billion in 2011 (see Table 54).17 This increase in total expenditure has risen
faster than GDP, meaning that expenditure on education as a share of GDP has increased
from 6.3% in 2011 to 7.9% in 2012. Education expenditure also grew as a proportion of all
Government spending, from 25.8% in 2011 to 27.2% in 2012.
The increase in total education expenditure was reflected in almost all of the major sources
of funding. Funds from the Government of Ghana (GoG) increased by 79% from GH¢
2.6billion to GH¢ 4.6billion. This represents an increase in the Government's contribution to
the total budget from 72% in 2011 to 80% in 2012.
Donor funds actually decreased by 10% from GH¢ 127million to GH¢ 114million between
2011 and 2012. This took its share of education expenditure from 3.6% down to 2%.
Internally Generated Funds (IGF) increased by 78% to GH¢ 631million. The expenditure
from GETfund actually decreased, from GH¢ 518million to GH¢ 361million (a 30% drop).
Funding from the Highly Indebted Poor Country Fund (HIPC) and Multilateral Debt Relief
Initiative (MDRI) came to an end in 2011, but the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA)
began in 2012 with an expenditure of GH¢ 10.6million.
Table 54.
Trends in Education Resource Envelope and Expenditure as a
share of GDP and Total Public Spending (GH¢)
Source
2009
2010
2011
2012
1,461,721,144
1,825,819,889
2,563,391,576
4,587,183,213
Donor
95,067,893
64,742,440
127,255,813
114,311,680
IGF
210,524,567
302,013,754
354,288,649
630,674,197
GETfund
150,636,100
313,283,250
518,486,027
361,279,228
HIPC/MDRI
Annual Budget
(ABFA)
31,818,711
58,504,024
2,288,506
0
0
0
0
10,571,282
Total Education Expenditure
1,949,768,415
2,564,363,357
3,565,710,571
5,704,019,600
GDP
36,598,000,000
46,232,000,000
57,013,000,000
71,847,000,000
Total Government Expenditure
8,756,146,694
11,532,209,320
13,837,325,330
20,944,723,341
5.3%
22.3%
5.5%
22.2%
6.3%
25.8%
7.9%
27.2%
GoG
Funding
Amount
Education Exp. as a % of GDP
Education Exp. as a % of GoG Exp.
Table 55 shows the trends in expenditure by the different levels of education. All levels of
education saw an increase in expenditure between 2011 and 2012. Pre-school saw the most
significant increase in expenditure, from GH¢ 103 million to GH¢ 435 million, representing
17
This increase is in nominal terms and does not account for inflation.
96
both a 321% increase and a shift from 2.9% of the total expenditure to 7.6%. Whilst spending
on Primary increased in nominal terms from GH¢ 1.2bn to GH¢ 1.3bn, there was a notable
decrease in its share of total spending, from 34.6% to 22.8%. JHS on the other hand had an
increasing share of total expenditure, from 11.5% in 2011 to 17.0% in 2012 which was GH¢
969million. SHS received an increase in share from 14.8% to 18.5%, but this was almost a
doubling from GH¢ 527million to GH¢ 1,057million. The share of expenditure to Management
and Subvented agencies decreased from 13.7% to 11.1% (2011 to 2012), however, the
absolute figures indicate that that component actually increased from GH¢ 488million to GH¢
631million.
Table 55.
Trends in expenditure by level of education
2009
Level
2010
2011
2012
Amt. (GH¢)
%
Amt. (GH¢)
%
Amt. (GH¢)
%
Amt. (GH¢)
%
Pre-school
60,272,779
3.1
72,036,051
2.8
103,391,337
2.9
435,502,334
7.6
Primary
594,950,694
30.5
715,160,506
27.9 1,234,146,460
34.6
1,302,972,161
22.8
JHS
297,665,072
15.3
370,235,825
14.4 411,648,553
11.5
969,147,257
17.0
SHS
337,369,027
17.3
400,030,646
15.6 526,809,606
14.8
1,057,413,465
18.5
TVET
35,038,819
1.8
38,436,313
1.5
126,982,366
3.6
163,681,164
2.9
SPED
7,493,238
0.4
17,214,633
0.7
19,149,996
0.5
21,717,157
0.4
NFED
Teacher
Education
Tertiary
Management
& Subvented
3,715,031
0.2
13,357,023
0.5
15,154,167
0.4
40,538,896
0.7
50,377,753
2.6
62,056,093
2.4
-
-
-
-
401,191,936
20.6
511,806,744
20
639,230,889
17.9
1,081,971,635
19.0
160,837,566
8.2
362,459,208
14.1 487,809,862
13.7
631,075,530
11.1
HIV-AIDS
856,499
0
1,570,316
0.1
1,387,335
0.04
0
0.0
Total
1,949,768,414
100
2,564,363,357
100
3,565,710,570
100
5,704,019,600
100
Figure 39. Proportion of total expenditure by level of education
97
The allocation of expenditure by item type is shown in Table 56. Compensation received a
significant proportion of expenditure, at 78.2% of the total expenditure and 97% of the
Government of Ghana funds. Goods and services accounted for 17.2% of expenditure, of
which Internally Generated Funds were the major contributor with GH¢ 625million, followed
by GH¢ 180m from GETfund. Assets were allocated 4.6% of total expenditure (GH¢ 264m),
of which 68% of funds were from GETfund.
Table 56.
Education resource envelope and item expenditure 2012
Sources
Compensation
Goods & Services
Assets
Total
%
GoG
4,459,516,046
75,246,732
52,420,434
4,587,183,213
76.2%
Donor
98,405,290
15,906,390
114,311,680
2.0%
IGF
625,515,081
5,159,116
630,674,197
10.5%
GETfund
180,472,068
180,807,159
361,279,228
6.0%
-
10,571,282
10,571,282
0.2%
4,459,516,046
979,639,172
264,864,382
5,704,019,600
100%
78.2%
17.2%
4.6%
100%
ABFA
Total
Figure 40. Expenditure by item, 2012
98
Table 57 shows the breakdown of expenditure by type and by the level of education. Under
compensation, Primary and JHS received the largest amounts at GH¢ 1.2billion and GH¢
917million respectively. The levels with the highest Goods and Services expenditure were
Tertiary (GH¢ 380million) and SHS (GH¢ 283million).
The 2012 expenditure components on assets of GH¢ 264m indicated that the largest amount
was allocated to SHS, with GH¢ 111million, which constitutes 42% of the total asset
expenditure. This high expenditure is duly accounted for by the policy on four year SHS
programme that necessitated the emergency provision of infrastructure.
Table 57.
Level
Expenditure by Level of Education and Item 2012
Compensation
Goods & Services
Assets
Total
%
417,350,629
12,399,597
5,752,108
435,502,334
7.6%
1,196,347,150
65,174,863
41,450,148
1,302,972,161
22.8%
JHS
917,407,476
29,775,124
21,964,657
969,147,257
17.0%
SHS
663,299,608
282,762,361
111,351,495
1,057,413,465
18.5%
TVET
39,437,837
105,678,182
18,565,145
163,681,164
2.9%
SPED
14,618,821
3,384,981
3,713,355
21,717,157
0.4%
NFED
39,282,739
799,569
456,588
40,538,896
0.7%
Tertiary
645,893,417
380,264,038
55,814,180
1,081,971,635
19.0%
525,878,369
99,400,456
5,796,705
631,075,530
11.1%
Pre-school
Primary
Management
Agencies
&
99
Total
4,459,516,046
979,639,172
264,864,382
5,704,019,600
100%
8.2 GoG Expenditure 2012
Table 58 shows how Government funds were allocated across the levels of education and
types of expenditure in 2012. As mentioned above, 97% of GoG funds were allocated to
compensation, leaving only 1.6% for goods and services and 1.1% for assets. Under goods
and services, the level receiving the greatest amount was SHS with GH¢ 42million, followed
by GH¢ 11million to Tertiary. Less than GH¢ 10million was allocated to Basic education for
goods and services, indicating the heavy reliance on other funding sources for this subsector. The same is true for assets, where no allocation was made from GoG funds to Basic
education. Again, SHS received the most substantial portion, which was GH¢ 49million.
100
Table 58.
GoG Expenditure by level of Education and item, 2012
Compensation
Goods &
Services
Assets
TOTAL
%
417,350,629
2,019,637
-
419,370,266
9.1%
1,196,347,150
5,494,322
-
1,201,841,472
26.2%
JSS
917,407,476
2,055,511
-
919,462,987
20.0%
SHS
663,299,608
42,001,475
48,853,534
754,154,617
16.4%
TVET
39,437,837
3,104,724
-
42,542,561
0.9%
SPED
14,618,821
3,049,274
-
17,668,095
0.4%
NFED
39,282,739
799,569
456,588
40,538,896
0.9%
Tertiary
Management &
Subvented agencies
TOTAL
645,893,417
10,946,070
2,472,723
659,312,210
14.4%
525,878,369
5,776,150
637,589
532,292,108
11.6%
4,459,516,046
75,246,732
52,420,434
4,587,183,213
97.2%
1.6%
1.1%
100.0%
Level
Pre-school
Primary
% of Total
Table 59 provides a summary of GOG budget execution rate for 2012. The year experienced
a number of events that involved high financial commitments and has thus resulted in
enormous budget execution rates especially for asset as compared to the execution rate in
the previous year (see figure 31).
Compensation overrun was 263% and was attributed to the payment of arrears as part of the
implementation of the Single Spine Salary Scheme.
The overrun expenditure under goods and services (146%) was due to reallocation of funds
from Ministry of Finance for the payment of some social intervention programmes such as
the capitation grant to all public basic schools and feeding grant to special schools,
subsidies, etc.
The asset overrun, at 2,412%, was explained by the reallocation of funds from GETfund to
GoG for payment towards the conversion of schools under trees into permanent structures
as well as the payment of SHS infrastructure provision.
Table 59.
GoG Budget Execution Rate 2012
Item
Budget Head
Ministry*
GES
Tertiary
Total
Compensation
('000)
Allocation
Expenditure
% Execution
203,414
342,292
168%
1,279,220
3,471,330
271%
214,501
645,893
301%
1,697,135
4,459,516
263%
Goods and
Services ('000)
Allocation
Expenditure
% Execution
10,278
4,127
40%
25,100
60,174
240%
16,096
10,946
68%
51,474
75,247
146%
Allocation
350
1,350
473
2,173
Expenditure
624
49,324
2,473
52,420
Asset ('000)
101
% Execution
178%
3654%
522%
2412%
* NB: Ministry Includes Main Ministry and Subvented Agencies
Figure 41. GOG budget execution rate for 2011 and 2012
8.3 Expenditure from other sources
Table 60 shows how expenditure from sources of funding other than GoG were allocated by
level of education in 2012. The ABFA was allocated entirely to Basic education. GETfund
was allocated across all the levels except for Non-formal, with its highest share going to
Tertiary (28%), followed by Management (25%) and SHS (23%). IGF was most significant in
its expenditure in Tertiary education (GH¢ 314million), followed by SHS (GH¢ 217million)
and TVET (GH¢ 92million). Donor spending18 was highly concentrated on Basic education,
with 90% of its GH¢ 114million total expenditure on Basic. Within this, Primary gets the most
significant share, representing 55% of total Donor spending, followed by 26% to JHS and 9%
to Pre-primary.
Table 60.
Level
Pre-school
Primary
JHS
SHS
TVET
SPED
NFED
Tertiary
Management &
Subvented
18
Expenditure by level of Education from other sources, 2012
ABFA
GETfund
IGF
Donor
Amount
%
Amount
%
Amount
%
Total
%
1,057,128
6,342,769
3,171,385
0
0
0
0
0
10%
60%
30%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
4,255,924
32,285,545
17,267,772
84,688,975
28,075,579
3,713,355
0
101,619,956
1%
9%
5%
23%
8%
1%
0%
28%
0
0
0
216,777,814
92,904,777
0
0
313,794,857
0%
0%
0%
34%
15%
0%
0%
50%
10,819,016
62,502,375
29,245,113
1,792,059
158,247
335,707
0
7,244,612
9%
55%
26%
2%
0%
0%
0%
6%
0
0%
89,372,122
25%
7,196,749
1%
2,214,552
2%
Donor spending includes AfDB, DfID, IDA, JICA, UNICEF, DANIDA and USAID.
102
Total
10,571,282
100%
361,279,228
100%
630,674,197
100%
114,311,680
100%
8.4 Unit Cost Analysis
The table below gives the unit costs per pupil by level of education. For each level two
indicators are given, the total cost per pupil and the recurrent unit costs since these are the
running costs to the sector spent on educating the pupils (recurrent costs are the
compensation and goods and services expenditure). Only pupils enrolled in public schools
and institutions are used here. Note that for TVET this includes Technical and Vocational
Institutes which do not actually fall under the education sector budget, which means the unit
cost of TVET under GES and COTVET may be significantly underestimated here. Enrolment
is used for the second school year within the financial year, for example 2012 expenditure is
divided by 2012/13 enrolment.
It can be seen there is a wide disparity between the recurrent unit costs at different levels of
education, generally rising with the levels. KG is the least costly per pupil, at GH¢ 343. The
unit cost rises through Basic Education, then increases substantially between JHS (GH¢
818) and SHS (GH¢ 1,227). As might be expected TVET is still substantially more at 2,971,
and as mentioned above this may in fact be an underestimate. As Tertiary enrolment is not
yet available for 2012/13, the most recent unit cost is for 2011, and shows Tertiary is the
highest cost at GH¢ 2,693 in 2011.
In terms of trend, all the levels of education experienced an increase in unit cost from the
previous year. The increase was most substantial in Pre-Primary (KG and crèche), with a
328% increase. This most likely reflects the push to allocate more resources to Pre-Primary,
which is still receiving less than Primary on a per-pupil basis.
Table 61.
Unit costs by level of Education
Level
Pre-Primary
(KG + crèche)
Primary
JHS
SHS
TVET
TERTIARY
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Total cost per pupil GH¢
60
84
347
Unit Cost GH¢
57
80
343
202
192
224
390
413
Unit Cost GH¢
189
181
214
372
400
275
277
336
367
837
Unit Cost GH¢
257
260
320
340
818
388
704
603
761
1,372
Unit Cost GH¢
281
636
397
516
1,227
379
885
1,030
2,481
3,351
Unit Cost GH¢
305
650
775
1,143
2,971
2,681
2,620
2,763
3,144
-
Unit Cost GH¢
2,012
2,034
1,932
2,693
-
As the unit costs are given in nominal prices, figure 42 below shows the annual percentage
change in unit cost as well as the inflation rate for each year. It can be seen that the unit
costs annual growth was above the inflation rate the majority of the time. In 2012, each of the
103
levels’ unit costs grew by more than inflation, meaning spending grew by more than average
price increases, One reason for this will be the implementation of the single spine salary and
related arrears payments in 2012.
Figure 42. Annual percentage change in unit cost
Year-on-year inflation data comes from the Bank of Ghana
104
REFERENCES
AUDEM (March 2013). Review Result of Annual District Performance Report 2011-12.
Accra: GES.
Darvas, P., and R. Palmer, (December 2012). Demand and Supply of Technical and
Vocational Skills in Ghana. World Bank.
GNECC (2013). Teacher Gaps In Public Basic Schools In Ghana. Global Action Week 2013.
GNECC Policy Brief.
Joseph, G., and Q. Wodon, (August 2012). Test Scores in Ghana’s Primary Schools:
Measuring the Impact of School Inputs and Socio-Economic Factors, Washington, DC: The
World Bank.
Mehta, A.C. (September 2012). Technical Review of EMIS and Statistical Analysis in Ghana.
New Delhi: NUEPA.
MoE and ADEA (September 2011). Schools Record Management System: Final Report on
Phase II.
NCTE (February 2013). Budget Performance for 2012 and Outlook for 2013.
NCTE (April 2013). Summary of Statistics for Accredited Tertiary Education Institutions.
2011/2012 Academic Year. Accra: NCTE.
UNICEF and UIS (April 2012). Global Initiative on Out-of-School Children – Ghana Country
Study. Accra: UNICEF.
UNICEF (March 2013a). The Status of Education in Ghana: Results from the Multiple
Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) 2006-2011. Accra: UNICEF.
UNICEF (2013b). MICS 2011: Analysis of Out-of-school Children. Presentation for the
National Education Sector Annual Review.
105
Glossary of education indicators
This glossary summarises the indicators calculated in this report, and how they were
calculated. There can be different interpretations of the methods so please refer to this
explanation for Ghana’s indicators.
Completion rate
The total number enrolled in the last grade of the level of education (e.g. Primary 6, JHS 3),
regardless of age, expressed as percentage of the total population of the theoretical entrance
age to the last grade of that level of education.
Gender Parity Index (GPI)
The ratio of the female GER to the male GER, the GPI is calculated by dividing the female
Gross Enrolment Ratio by the male Gross Enrolment Ratio for the given level of education. A
GPI between 0.97 and 1.00 indicates parity between the genders. A GPI below 0.97
indicates a disparity in favour of males. A GPI above 1.00 indicates a disparity in favour of
females.
Gross Admission Rate (GAR)
Total number of pupils or students enrolled in the first grade of an education level, regardless
of age, expressed as a percentage of the population of the official school-entrance age.
Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER)
Number of pupils or students enrolled in a given level of education, regardless of age,
expressed as a percentage of the official school-age population corresponding to the same
level of education. The ratio can exceed 100% due to over-aged and under-aged children
who enter school late/early and/or repeat grades.
Net Admission Rate (NAR)
Total number of pupils or students in the theoretical age group for the first grade of a level of
education who are enrolled in that grade, expressed as a percentage of the total population
in that age group. The NAR should have an upper limit of 100%.
Net Enrolment Ratio (NER)
Total number of pupils or students in the theoretical age group for a given level of education
enrolled in that level, expressed as a percentage of the total population in that age group.
The NER should have an upper limit of 100%.
Pupil-teacher ratio (PTR)
106
The average number of pupils per teacher at a given level of education. Divide the total
number of pupils enrolled at the specified level of education by the number of teachers at the
same level.
Pupil-trained teacher ratio (PTTR)
The number of pupils per trained teacher at a given level of education. Divide the total
number of pupils enrolled at the specified level of education by the number of teachers who
have a teacher training qualification at the same level.
Repetition rate
The number of repeaters in a given level of education in a given school year, expressed as a
percentage of enrolment in that level of education.
Retention rate
This is a proxy measure for school completion, giving the percentage of a cohort who
entered a level of education who are then in the final year of that level the appropriate
number of years later. It does not account for repeaters. For Primary, it is calculated as the
number enrolled in P6 in year T, divided by the number enrolled in P1 in year T-5.
Transition rate
The number of pupils (or students) admitted to the first grade of a higher level of education in
a given year, expressed as a percentage of the number of pupils (or students) enrolled in the
final grade of the lower level of education in the previous year.
107

report - Ministry of Education

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