Friday, March 29, 2024

Ghana Needs More Efficient Spending To Fix Gaps In Education

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By Victor Osei Kwadwo

The Millennium Development Goals were announced to the world in the year 2000. They marked a significant milestone in instituting a goal-based approach towards development. In terms of policies, they have arguably been the most successful in driving the world’s agenda towards global development.

But when it comes to education, the extent to which they made a difference after 15 years remains inconclusive. In 2015 the Sustainable Development Goals replaced the Millennium Development Goals. Goal number 4 is dedicated to education. It seeks to ensure inclusive, equitable and quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030.

This goal is guided by seven outcome targets. Among these are achieving universal primary and secondary education; providing equal access to technical or vocational and higher education; providing relevant skills for decent work; and ensuring universal youth literacy.

Setting global goals and targets alone might not be enough. It is important to understand how much it will cost to realise the education goal. Implementation lies mainly with member states – but do member states have a full picture of what they have signed up for? How much will be needed to achieve the goals? Can it be afforded? What will be the sources of finance?

In a study I co-authored with Obaa Akua Konadu, a development policy analyst, we addressed these questions with a focus on Ghana. The study quantified what Ghana needs to achieve the goal on education. We did this by estimating an education performance gap and the fiscal capacity needed to address that gap.

The results suggested that Ghana faces more of an allocation and efficiency challenge rather than a resource challenge to attain Sustainable Development Goal 4. While the top-performing countries are, on average, spending less of their gross domestic product (GDP) on education and achieving more, Ghana is spending more but achieving less.

Our findings give an indication of what Ghana has to do to achieve the Sustainable Development goal on education. Read more…

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