Introduction

For many children in Ghana, the promise of education remains unfulfilled. Despite significant increases in school enrolment over the past decades, more than 1.9 million children of basic school-going age (4–14 years) were out of school as of 2023. Additionally, many children who are in school are not acquiring foundational literacy and numeracy skills. Evidently, the outcomes of the 2022 National Standardized Test suggest that 48.7% and 50.8% of Basic 4 pupils failed to meet basic competency levels in literacy and numeracy, respectively.

Besides, the Learning Adjusted Year of Schooling for about 11.6 years of primary SHS education is only 5.7 years. Impliedly, although Ghanaian students spend about 11.6 years in primary-secondary education, their learning outcomes are equivalent to what a typical student learns in 5.7 years of high-quality schooling. A closer examination of the data by gender, socioeconomic status, disability, and geography highlights systemic inequalities in access and learning outcomes. As Ghana begins a new chapter under the leadership of its newly appointed Minister for Education, Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, addressing these dual crises of inequitable access and poor learning outcomes must be a top priority.

Achieving these largely requires adequate funding to expand school infrastructure, equip schools with teaching and learning resources, and enhance teachers’ capacity, among others. Hence, the case must still be made for the Education Minister to work closely with the Finance Minister to increase funding to education – aiming for the upper thresholds of international benchmarks – 6% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is in line with the NDC’s promise in their 2024 Manifesto, or 20% annual government spending. Notwithstanding, studies indicate that simply increasing annual education spending is insufficient, instead, the core of the funding solution lies in prioritizing equity and efficiency in resource distribution and utilization – an area that demands the Minister’s focused attention.

Education financing outlook

Ghana’s total education spending has followed an upward trajectory over the past decades, albeit it often falls short of internationally recommended levels – 4%-6% of GDP and 15%-20% of total annual government expenditure. Over the last decade, education spending more than quadrupled, rising from GHC5.7 billion in 2012 to GHC24.3 billion in 2022 – a 326.3% increase. Between 2021 and 2022 alone, spending increased by 41.3%, from GHC17.2 billion to GHC24.3 billion. Relatively, this is positive although adjusting for inflation and analysing per-learner spending highlights gaps that require attention.

The case for equitable spending

Ghana, however, often faces disparities in spending which reveals systemic inequality that disappointedly affects marginalized groups – girls, children from underserved communities and poor households, and children with disabilities. For instance, in terms of socioeconomic background, Ghana spends three times more (33%) on children from the wealthiest quintile compared to just 11% for children from the poorest quintile. This disparity is reflected in access opportunity where only 52% of children from the poorest quintile complete primary school, compared to 86% of those from the wealthiest quintile.

A similar case is observed between rural and urban areas, with a 13-percentage points gap in primary school completion rates (65% for rural children and 79% for urban children). At the Junior High School (JHS) level, this gap widens to 25 percentage points, with only 36% of rural children completing JHS compared to 61% of urban children. In terms of learning outcomes, only 5% of children from the poorest quintile achieved foundational reading skills, compared to 50% of children from the richest quintile. These disparities could have been reduced through targeted investment, such as focusing education budgets on underserved areas by constructing more rural schools, providing teaching and learning resources, and offering incentives to encourage teacher postings to rural areas.

Other critical disparity factors like dropout rates, learning outcomes, and participation in educational programmes (e.g., STEM) between specific demographic groups underscore the deficiencies rooted in inequitable spending.

The dropout rate in Ghana’s basic education system is about 2% with girls slightly more likely to be out of school than boys. While the inverted dropout rate of 2% is a strength of the system in retaining a significant number of pupils, further reductions could enhance overall efficiency. Yet, the lack of gender-sensitive budgeting to address gender-specific school challenges that girls face, like inadequate WASH facilities, contributes to the dropout rate among them, signalling inequity in education spending. In other words, funding reinforces inequity if it overlooks barriers preventing girls from staying in school. Similarly, there is a lack of or inadequate support for learners with disabilities in mainstream schools due to the absence of disability mainstreamed budgeting approach in education budgeting.

It is instructive to know that, even without necessarily increasing the percentage of GDP allocation to education, some of the challenges in the sector could be minimized if Ghana allocates resources equitably. For example, at the current rate of education funding, a one-percentage point increase in the allocation of public education resources to the poorest 20% could reduce Ghana’s learning poverty rate by 2.6 to 4.7 percentage points. Hence, while sufficient funding is necessary to address the bouquet of issues in the system, prioritizing equity in education resource allocation and utilization is particularly crucial. The Minister must therefore be keen in identifying systemic deficiencies and ensure that education spending is distributed equitably to promote equal opportunities for all learners.

The imperative of spending efficiency

A Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was conducted by the author to evaluate the efficiency of Ghana’s basic education system, using key metrics from the 2022/2023 academic year, (Total education spending, per unit expenditure and number of teachers (as INPUTS), and Enrolment rate, Age 4 literacy rate, Learning Adjusted Years for Schooling, Age 4 numeracy rate, dropout rate and pupil-teacher ratio (as OUTPUTS)) yielded a DEA efficiency score of 79.8%. This means that, for every unit of input invested (e.g., spending, teacher resources), Ghana achieves only 79.8% of the potential output in its basic education system. In other words, there is a 20.2% gap or inefficiency in the basic education system, where resources are not fully translating into results. Conducting an efficiency analysis across the entire education system is likely to produce similar or even greater inefficiency.

Assuming basic education funding remains at the 2020 rate (GHC10.3 billion), closing the 20.2% inefficiency gap could significantly improve educational outcomes. The literacy rate among P4 pupils could rise from 51% to 61.3%, while the numeracy rate could improve from 45% to 54.1%. Additionally, the Net Enrolment Rate could be nearing the universal enrolment level (from 75.3% to 90.5%) (Author’s computation using Scenarios Modeling with Simulation method). The spending inefficiency underscores the critical need for reforms that enhance resource utilization to maximize educational outcomes, particularly in critical areas like literacy and numeracy. Such reforms are even more pressing in the context of growing demands on the education sector, as Ghana’s economic crisis places the country in a constrained fiscal environment with competing priorities across other sectors.

Underlying causes of spending inefficiency

Spending inefficiencies in Ghana’s education system stem from imbalances in resource allocation, mismanagement, misaligned priorities, and systemic accountability challenges. Funding and other inputs are inequitably distributed across educational stages, regions, districts, and schools, with underserved communities often facing shortages in infrastructure, learning materials, and qualified teachers. For instance, there is a structural inefficiency in prioritizing resources for secondary and tertiary education at the expense of Kindergarten (KG) education. Between 2017 and 2022, an average of 8% of the education budget was expended on KG education, compared to 24% for tertiary education. While investing in tertiary education is important, investing less in children during their early childhood, and more during their later years is significantly less effective. For greater efficiency, a more balanced allocation of education resources across all age groups is essential.

Also, successive audits of Education Sector Institutions (ESI) by the Auditor General revealed widespread mismanagement of education funds. In 2023 alone, financial irregularities among audited ESI amounted to GHC60.9 million – comprising procurement, payroll, contract, and store, irregularities. Such mismanagement reduces the overall effectiveness of investments in the sector. Additionally, there is limited access to information on how education funds are spent. This opacity makes it difficult for stakeholders to monitor and evaluate the use of resources. Addressing these systemic accountability gaps is, therefore, crucial to ensuring the efficient use of resources and maximizing the impact of investment in education.

Conclusion and recommendations

The multiplicity of issues within Ghana’s education system requires increased investment. Yet, merely increasing spending without addressing underlying inequity and inefficiency will not necessarily maximize outcomes. Addressing these systemic issues requires deliberate strategies to ensure every Ghana cedi spent on education directly maximizes impact in an equitable manner. Key strategies the Minister should pursue include:

1. Adopting equity/need-based approaches to resource allocation. By that, gender, depravity and inclusive budgeting approaches that address specific challenges faced by girls, learners from under-served communities/poor households, and learners with a disability must be pursued.
2. Prioritizing efficient teacher deployment, including fulfilling the government’s 2024 manifesto promise to pay teachers who accept rural postings, an allowance of 20% of their basic salaries.
3. Strengthening governance and accountability systems to minimize waste/mismanagement, such as promoting a competitive procurement process and undertaking periodic public education expenditure tracking surveys.
4. Acting on recommendations in the Auditor General’s report on the audit of ESI.
5. Identifying cost-effective interventions/programmes to ensure optimal resource allocation.
6. Increasing funding to KG education, where children from the poorest households are more represented, to improve early childhood education outcomes.

Author: Divine Kpe (Education Specialist)

Email: divsonek@gmail.com