Aid for education in Ghana drops from $127m in 2003 to $88m in 2014 – UNESCO

PupilsDonor funding for education in Ghana has continued to fall, despite the need for increased funding for the sector in the light of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 4). The SDG4 says countries should provide every child with 12 years of quality education by 2030.

The drop in donor funding for education in the country follows global trends.

According to UNESCO, total aid to education in Ghana in 2002/2003 was $127 million. In 2013, funding rose to $146 million but fell drastically to $88 million in 2014.

The Global Education Monitoring (GEM) report by UNESCO shows that aid to basic education in sub-Saharan Africa has returned to 2002/2003 levels. Latest aid figures for education estimated by the report, show that levels went down by almost $600 million, or 4 per cent, between 2013 and 2014.

“The share of total aid being allocated to education also fell from 9.5 per cent to 8.2 per cent, indicating that the sector is falling further down the list of priorities for donors,” it added.

The figures show that aid to basic education, providing for pre-primary and primary education as well as basic life skills, has decreased by 5 per cent since 2013, noting that that figure is an even greater fall than for education as a whole.

The report notes that aid to basic education to sub-Saharan Africa, which is home to over half the world’s out-of-school children, fell below $1.5 billion in 2014 and returned to the 2002/03 levels.

“The share of sub-Saharan Africa in total aid to basic education has plummeted from 49 per cent to 28 per cent during this period. Part of the decline may be accounted for by the sharp increase of the share of that aid, which is unallocated by region or country and which includes disbursements by the Global Partnership for Education. Even so, there is an unmistakeable decline for sub-Saharan Africa,” it said.

The report indicates that aid to basic education (pre-primary, primary and basic life skills) in Ghana in 2002/2003 was $81 million, it rose to $92 million in 2013, but fell significantly to $42 million in 2014.

Breaking down aid per child, the report stated that in 2002/2003 it was $26, then fell to $24 in 2013 and drops to $11 in 2014.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi

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