Scoring NPP gov't 55% on Education; IMANI enumerates reasons

After executing the flagship Free SHS Programme, albeit some hitches, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government scored 55% on its Education promises on the IMANI IMANIFesto.

IMANIFesto rates governments performance on key sectors with respect to political parties manifesto promises prior to elections.

With the NPP’s 56% score on its 510 promises, IMANI has outlined what constituted its [NPP] 55% performance on education.

According to IMANI, the party made “32 promises in the education sector grouped under 14 thematic areas including Kindergarten, Primary, Secondary, Technical and Vocational Education (STVE), management of schools, teachers, Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), tertiary education, among others.”

Eight of these promises were fully executed whilst work begun on 20 of them according to the IMANIFesto report.

The restoration of teacher trainee allowance in the 2017/2018 academic year for the 41 public Colleges of Education nationwide was a major plus for the government’s achievement under the sector.

However, WI-FI connectivity to all Senior High and Tertiary institutions has not been fully realised, whereas decentralization of teacher recruitment, facilitating affordable housing for teachers amongst others haven’t been fulfilled.

Read the detailed report below

IMANI: How and why the NPP scored 55% in education from its 2016 manifesto commitments

Education was central to the NPP 2016 campaign with the promise of FREE SHS dominating policy issues during the election period. The NPP made 32 promises in the education sector grouped under 14 thematic areas including Kindergarten, Primary, Secondary, Technical and Vocational Education (STVE), management of schools, teachers, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), tertiary education, among others. Over the tenure of administration, government has been able to fully implement 8 of them while work begun on 20. Summarily, IMANI scores government 55 percent on Education.

Government’s most prominent achievement in the education sector is the implementation of free Senior High School (SHS), a highly popular policy introduction. Free SHS has increased education enrolment from 800,000 in the 2016/17 academic year to 1.2 million students in the 2019/20 academic year. The policy however came along with an intermediary system of Double Track – a shift system to contain the high enrolment. While the Free SHS addresses the financial constraints of students that impeded enrolment, the policy after three years of implementation needs critical review to ensure financial sustainability as this is a major risk. In respect of Technical and Vocational Education, the NPP promised to ensure that each region has two state-of-art institutions was not fulfilled although there were consistent mentions of this in the national budgets such as in the 2020 budget, which promised the construction of 32 modern TVET in the medium-term. With a score of 47 percent, the NPP performed satisfactorily in the area of Secondary, Technical and Vocational Education.

Two critical promises were made in respect of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education. These were to aggressively promote STEM education across all levels of the education system as well as leveraging technology to popularize the teaching and learning of Mathematics in the country. Here, IMANI scored government 50 percent for its performance. It is noteworthy that the Ministry of Education reports a successful training of about 700 teachers nationwide in Senior High Schools on the use of ICT in teaching (STEM) programme. Only one of the four promises targeted at teachers was fully achieved. This was the restoration of teacher trainee allowance in the 2017/2018 academic year for the 41 public Colleges of Education nationwide. The other three unfulfilled promises were ensuring that teachers who upgraded their qualifications and skills were promoted promptly with immediate salary change, decentralization of teacher recruitment and other document processing and finally, the promise to facilitate an affordable housing scheme for teachers.

The government is yet to complete its WI-FI connectivity coverage to all the secondary schools and tertiary institutions across the country although very few schools have confirmed having Wi-Fi. Promises made in the area of Arabic education received a good attention from the government.
Progress was made in implementation as the promise to restore the policy, and support Arabic/Islamic instructors with training and other incentives to motivate them to provide good training. 3,000 Arabic instructors were recruited and deployed to various Islamic schools in the country. Additionally, there are ongoing efforts at developing a curriculum for Arabic studies which will be an optional subject at JHS and SHS levels. This is to fulfil the promise of introducing Arabic as an optional language to be taught and examined at the JHS and SHS levels.

At the Tertiary level, government implemented its promise to increase the amount of loans under the Student Loan Scheme and restructure to streamline its administration to enhance recovery of the loans. The promise to establish a Manufacturing Plant at the KNUST for the production of prototypes of the inventions and creations of scientists and innovators in the country was however not met. There is an urgent need to boost the infrastructural capacity of tertiary schools in the country to accommodate the increased enrolment as a result of the FREE SHS policy.