Accra, Ghana//-STAR-Ghana Foundation has called for a harmonised Civil Society Organisations’ (CSOs’) position on improving education, which is critical to the socio-economic development of the country.
According to the Foundation, previous efforts by individual CSOs have been fragmented. It doesn’t help in terms of greater accountability and their desire to drive educational reforms.
The Manager, Right to Social Services Portfolio at STAR-Ghana Foundation, Raymond Danso, made the call a CSOs Thematic Forum on Education held in Accra.
The forum organised by the STAR-Ghana Foundation formed part of the preparatory steps towards the government’s planned National Summit on Transforming Ghana’s Education System.
Mr Danso, who spoke to journalists after the first session of the forum, explained that they believe that working together is always the best way to be able to get the attention of the government and ensure that issues are addressed comprehensively.
“For us here, we’ve been working together; we’ll keep working as partners and also keep working with the government”, he added.
Mr Danso and his fellow CSO actors hope that the government would live up to its expectations in terms of the issues that are presented broadly, in terms of the new solutions “We need to test and implement to change things that are happening within the educational sector.”
“We are very certain that the alternatives that we present by way of what has worked in the past and what we think would work would be a good foundation for the government to consider in terms of the new policies and to make commitment, especially around issues of education finance and infrastructure, teacher deployment, development, and so on.”
He disclosed that they are coming out again from this forum with a tracking tool which would be launched and that would be used by CSOs in terms of monitoring government commitment and also working with the government to improve the education sector.
The forum, Mr Danso said, was also meant to provide the CSOs a platform to coordinate issues which require attention within the education sector.
“The forum is a good platform for CSOs to coordinate our issues and present them in a coordinated effort. In terms of the issues, we want to amplify so they are not fragmented, but are well coordinated.”
CSOs in the education sector did not mince words but called for effective accountability measures to ensure the government fulfils its commitments to improving education in the country.
Mr. Danso emphasises the critical role of civil society in holding duty-bearers accountable while calling for stronger collaboration between CSOs and policymakers to drive meaningful education reforms at all levels of education.
The Executive Director of Education Watch Africa, Kofi Asare, who took the participants who were mostly CSOs in the education sector, appealed to all stakeholders to work together to address the myriad of challenges confronting the country’s education sector.
Some of the challenges he mentioned include textbook deficits in public basic schools, low funding for free Senior High School (FSHS), inadequate access to school desks, and thousands of schools still operating under trees.
The day’s forum discussed strengthening civil society’s role in monitoring education policies and reforms, leveraging evidence-based advocacy to improve education service delivery, and enhancing partnerships for effective policy implementation.
