Ghana receives £20 million of £100m 10 year educational plan

The amount which was received through the Export Development and Investment Fund, is part of a £100 million grant it was promised, to implement its educational policies over the next 10 years.

Finance and Economic Planning Minister Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, speaking to The Statesman at a conference on Financing for education and energy Development held in Accra on Thursday noted that Ghana will receive £10 million every year as part of the deal, and countries benefiting alongside Ghana currently include Tanzania and Malawi.

Delivering a speech at the conference, Mr Baah-Wiredu disclosed that there are currently 77 million children out of school, including 44 million girls all over world. The current rate of progress indicates that at least 75 countries will not achieve universal primary completion by 2015, which is the key target under the Millennium Development Goals. He said all children must be enrolled in school by 2009, if countries are to meet the universal completion target by 2015.

In that regard, plans to increase access and improve the quality of education provision should be finalised this year by all countries that are striving to achieve the MDGs, and the necessary resources mobilized quickly.

According to him, the global Monitoring report estimates that $9 billion external aid is needed per annum in order to achieve the primary education goal. That would require a tripling in aid for basic education in low income countries over the next 2 to 3 years. The total aid required, he said, is equivalent to around $13 per child in the developing world.

The Education Minister called on donors to re-align their aid for education, since there appears to be a gap between the policy rhetoric of commitment to the proposed goals. In that order, developing countries ought to increase domestic investment in education.

The Minister in a subsequent interview expressed worry about why some African countries that prepared the plan with Ghana have still not received their share of the educational fund.

He urged participants to strengthen their efforts further, to promote transparency, accountability and good governance, which are strongly required by donors to qualify their countries for the grants.

Link to The Statesman : Business : Ghana receives £20 million of £100m 10 year educational plan