Parliament has given an approval to Education ministry the sum of thirteen billion, three hundred and one million, one hundred and eighty-two thousand, six hundred and ninety-two Ghana cedis (GH¢13,301,182,692.00) for the programmes and activities for the 2020 Financial Year.
This represents an increment of 18.8% in the Ministry’s total budgetary allocation for year 2020, over the year 2019, allocation of GH¢11.195,401,221.70.
The Ministry has planned to undertake fhe following programmes; activities among others for the year under review to develop, print and supply Teaching and Learning Materials (TLMs) for the revised curriculum to include the following:
• Literacy, Numeracy, Creative Arts and Our World Our People Workbooks for 1,250,144 KG pupils.
• Literacy, Numeracy, Creative Arts and Our World Our People Textbooks for 1,614,280 pupils in Lower Primary.
• Literacy, Numeracy, Creative Arts and Our World Our People, History, Ghanaian Language and Science Textbooks for 1,561,058 pupils in Upper Primary and
• 1,215,088 pieces of Teachers Guide for KG to P6 teachers.
The ministry will also commence the development of the new JHS and SHS curriculum and train JHS and SHS teachers on the new curriculum as well as to decentralise the management of pre-tertiary education upon the passage of the Pre-Tertiary Education Bill, 2019 by Parliament.
Under Basic Education Programme, it has intended to absorb the BECE registration fees for 402,010 candidates from public JHSs.
Train 9,000 basic school teachers in the delivery of BSTEM.
Equip 4,400 basic schools with Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) equipment and commence the construction of 20 STEM Centres across the country and many more.
Presenting the report, the chairman of the committee, William Agyapong Quaittoo made the the point that, there is no gainsaying that education is the foundation for the development of every nation.
He said, “education unearths the potential of individuals and empower them to become responsible persons, who are able to contribute meaningfully to the socio-economic development of a nation”.
It is within this context that the mandate of the Ministry of Education finds expression and justifies the need for the Ministry to be adequately resourced and positioned to play its role effectively and efficiently for the benefit of the nation he emphasized.
Story filed by Edzorna Francis Mensah