The Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has urged the government to fulfill its ‘Year of Roads’ pledge by improving access to public schools in rural areas.
The government had designated 2020 as the ‘Year of Roads.’ TEWU emphasized that the challenges of reaching rural public schools, exacerbated by poor road conditions, could deter children from attending school.
Mr. Mark Dankyira Korankye, the General Secretary of TEWU, made this appeal during the 13th Quadrennial Delegates Conference of TEWU in Bolgatanga, Upper East Region, highlighting the need for better link roads in the Upper West and Upper East Regions.
The conference revolved around the theme “Fostering partnership for equitable education delivery; role of TEWU.”
He said “Even as we travelled along the routes from Wa to Bolgatanga and could not find public schools in these areas, we also noticed that the roads are so unmotorable.
“So even if children would want to access the next education facility which is miles away from where they are living, they still would have to encounter bad roads.
“We want to call on our government to make every effort to live by its mantra that said the years of roads in 2020 and 2021 which is past and yet a number of roads are yet to be fixed.
“We are calling on government to live up to its mantra and fix these roads, so that even if the public schools cannot be close by, at least means of transportation will be easy for people to commute from their places of residence to the nearby public institution, thereby closing that infrastructure gap,” he said.
Regarding equitable education delivery, the General Secretary noted that gender disparity remained a significant factor affecting education equity in Ghana, spanning from the basic to the tertiary levels.
At the KG level, you probably find equal boys and girls in the classroom, but as you progress, you find that the number of girls keeps dropping until you get to the University where you see a wide gap between the boys and the girls.
“This again cannot cause us to attain equitable education delivery in our country. Education is a right, and we think that government and all the stakeholders must make every effort in ensuring that every child is given unhindered right to attaining quality education to whatever level they desire,” Mr Korankye said.
He expressed concern over the unequal allocation of educational resources and highlighted instances where some public institutions had significantly fewer teaching staff compared to others with more educators.
This, he emphasized, contradicted the objectives of Sustainable Development Goal 4, which aims to achieve inclusive and equitable education while promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all.