A rare bipartisan move by both the Majority and Minority Leaders in Parliament has secured an assurance that there will be a substantial increase in the amount of funds allocated to special needs schools.

This comes after the House approved GH₵29.5 billion for the Education Ministry which is the highest allocation to any ministry, department or agency.

Schools with special needs were allocated just a little above GH₵500,000 for compensation, with no allocation for capital expenditure or goods and services. 

The Minority Leader, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson expressed dissatisfaction with this allocation.

He remarked that given the approval of GH₵29.5 billion to the Education Ministry, allocating such an amount to schools with special needs was unacceptable.

Dr. Ato Forson stated that while the approved funds are designated for diverse educational sectors, such as basic education, second-cycle education, non-formal, and tertiary education, there is a need to increase the budget allocated for schools with special needs.

“But one matter of significant importance to me, Mr Speaker is that even though the ministry has been allocated 29.5 billion Ghana cedis, only 673,429 - Mr Speaker under one million Ghana cedis has been allocated to special education. 

“Mr Speaker, special education is something that we should take quite seriously as a country because clearly there are number of special schools in the country but unfortunately, this budget is allocating less than 1 million Ghana cedis for special education,” he said.

He explained that with GH₵7.7 million allocated to tertiary education, GH₵5.7 billion to basic education, GH₵2.6 billion to second cycle education, and GH₵106 million to non-formal education, he finds it puzzling why special education has been allocated less than GH₵1 million.

“Mr Speaker, I think it's something that we should be interested in and get the Ministry of Finance or the Ministry to do some reallocation,” he stressed.

On his part, the Majority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu expressed shock at the measly allocation made to schools with special needs. 

“It says that the allocation is just GH₵1 million, less than GH₵1 million. I want to believe that is a typo or error, I don't want to believe. Mr Speaker, we have an allocation of some amount in excess of 100 million to non-formal education.

“Mr Speaker, we need to spend more on the special schools, not the non-formal education. So I would want to plead that if we can do a reallocation from the non-formal education to the special schools, it should be good," he said.

The Majority Leader proposed a specific reallocation, suggesting that at least GH₵20 million be redirected from non-formal education to special schools.