Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu has said that the government is redirecting attention and investment towards basic education and foundational learning as persistent infrastructure and learning gaps continue to affect educational outcomes.

The Minister said the country must prioritise literacy, numeracy and other foundational skills before placing greater emphasis on expanding access to higher levels of education.

Speaking at the Ghana and Regional Foundational Learning Evidence and Implementation Support Day, he cited an Auditor-General’s report which he said found that about 10,700 public basic schools across 13 regions were without classrooms.

He said the situation affected more than three million pupils and required an urgent response from government.

“And the Auditor General reveals that about 10,700 public basic schools in 13 regions with total enrolment of over 10 million are without classrooms,” Mr Iddrisu said.

“So any proactive and responsible government must respond to this need. Priority should be foundational learning and basic education.”

The Minister said the scale of the infrastructure deficit showed that Ghana still had significant work to do in achieving the constitutional goal of universal basic education.

He questioned the emphasis on expanding free secondary education when some children were yet to benefit fully from basic education.

“To those of you who have been in Ghana with me in the last 30 years, we have no excuse, no excuse as a country,” he said.

“It is not for nothing that the framers of the Constitution identified free compulsory universal basic education.”

Mr Iddrisu described it as an irony that the country was discussing free secondary education while the objective of achieving free compulsory universal basic education had not yet been fully realised.

“But the irony, they are talking about free secondary education when you haven't achieved free compulsory universal basic education,” he said.

The Education Minister also disclosed that the government intends to commit about GH¢2.8 billion from the US$300 million STARR-J facility towards infrastructure development in the education sector.

He said the funding would support efforts to expand access to secondary education while other portions would be used to improve quality assurance and provide textbooks.

“At least about 2.8 billion of that money will be dedicated to infrastructure support, while other portions of it will be used for matters relating to quality assurance and textbooks,” Mr Iddrisu said.

He said the infrastructure projects would be subjected to proper procurement procedures to ensure that public funds were used transparently and competitively.

“I have accordingly requested my team to subject it to lawful, open, competitive, transparent procurement process to get those projects going,” he said.