The Member of Parliament for Builsa South, Dr Clement Apaak, has asked the president to order the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, to release capitation grants for public basic schools.
According to him, the failure to pay the capitation grant for the past 2 years is affecting the quality of education for pupils in the basic schools which could gradually collapse the public basic school system and those running their schools only on capitation grants are really suffering.
He added that the last time the grant was paid was in 2019/2020, meaning that for 2021, 2022, and 2023, they haven’t received anything.
“Akufo-Addo/Bawumia led government has failed to disburse capitation grants to ensure the smooth running if public basic school in the country. The situation is dire that the conference of heads of public basic schools has publicly lamented and as a member of parliament to the NDC side on Education Committee, my caucus decided that we use this medium to call on Mr. president to instruct the finance minister to release capitation grants,” he said in an interview.
The Conference of Heads of Basic Schools in Ghana is lamenting the non-payment of capitation grants meant for the operationalisation of basic schools for the past two years, which is crippling the progress of teaching and learning in schools. Despite the Ministry of Education’s recent indication that some GH¢11 million has been released to schools as of November 2022, the association says they are yet to receive any funds, and the situation is getting worse.
According to reports, the General Secretary of the Conference of Heads of Basic Schools, Justice Adu Darko, explained that the amount itself is inadequate considering the prices of commodities of late.