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Tamale, Ghana – Tamale based youth centred nongovernmental organisation, Youth Empowerment for Life (YEfL), has expressed concern in the quality of education currently being churned out by Ghana’s government to citizens.
Though it commends the Nana Akufu-Addo led administration on “..its progress in providing access to basic and secondary education, especially with regard to Free SHS”, YEfL says it is concerned that government is not “doing well on the provision of quality education and the provisioning of adequate infrastructure which will affect the economic prospects of the youth and further widen the inequality gap.”
In a statement issued in Tamale and copied to Savannah News in commemoration of the 2019 International Youth Day, it also noted that “Among young people in Ghana, inequality is evident in educational outcomes and tends to favour young males over females, urban over rural. Whilst just under half of BECE students that qualify for SHS nationally, almost 2 in every 3 students qualify in the best performing region (Greater Accra), whilst only 1 in 4 students qualify for SHS in the poorest performing region (Upper East) (MoE- M&E unit, 2011). This sets the stage for regional disparities among young people in Ghana. Young people in disadvantaged areas (especially in rural northern Ghana) continue to miss out on the political and economic growth of the country due to widening gap in income between the wealthy and the poor. Unemployment is unreasonably high as there appear to be a mismatch in skills and education.
Below is the full statement:
PRESS STATEMENT ISSUED BY YOUTH EMPOWERMENT FOR LIFE (YEfL) TO MARK THE 2019 INTERNATIONAL YOUTH DAY ON AUGUST 12, 2019
AUGUST 10, 2019
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
EMPOWERED YOUTH LEADING CHANGE
Youth Empowerment for Life ahead of the International Youth Day joins well-wishers globally to celebrate the youth on the theme “Transforming Education.”
This presents us with the opportunity to reflect on our progress as a country in ensuring that our education becomes all inclusive, accessible and of quality with equal educational opportunities and facilities as enshrined in the constitution of Ghana and in the SDGs.
As we commend government on its progress in providing access to basic and secondary education, especially with regard to Free SHS, we are concerned that it is not doing well on the provision of quality education and the provisioning of adequate infrastructure which will affect the economic prospects of the youth and further widen the inequality gap.
Among young people in Ghana, inequality is evident in educational outcomes and tends to favour young males over females, urban over rural. Whilst just under half of BECE students that qualify for SHS nationally, almost 2 in every 3 students qualify in the best performing region (Greater Accra), whilst only 1 in 4 students qualify for SHS in the poorest performing region (Upper East) (MoE- M&E unit, 2011). This sets the stage for regional disparities among young people in Ghana. Young people in disadvantaged areas (especially in rural northern Ghana) continue to miss out on the political and economic growth of the country due to widening gap in income between the wealthy and the poor. Unemployment is unreasonably high as there appear to be a mismatch in skills and education.
On this occasion, we applaud the youth of northern Ghana and of the world for continuing to hold their governments accountable to ensure improved educational outcomes.
We also implore government to consider the introduction of entrepreneurship in our educational curriculum to promote opportunity recognition and ideation at the early stages to address the unemployment rate among the youth.
We further call on the National Youth Authority to expedite action on revising the Youth Policy for guidance on youth development in the country.
Signed.
Alhassan Abdul-Ganiyu
Technical Advisor
Youth, Advocacy and Gender
0246 990 982
www.yefl-gh.com
By Savannahnewsonline.com/Philip Liebs
