A study conducted by the Campaign Against Privatisation and Commercialisation of Education (CAPCOE) in 2021 shows about 4000 primary schools across Ghana do not have Junior High Schools (JHS).

According to the study, students cannot travel long distance from their communities accounting for 30 students dropping out of school daily.

Speaking to JoyNews on the sidelines of a Regional Training for stakeholders in the Northern Sector, the Convener for CAPCOE, Richard Kwashie Kovey, said children who complete these schools will either have to move to a private school or trek long distances to other schools.

He added that most of them have had to drop out because of these challenges.

He said the situation has pushed the dropped-out rate of children to about 200,000 annually.

“We identified those 4,000 primary schools across the country that do not have Junior High Schools...what it means is that after primary six because they have to walk several kilometres to access the nearest public school, you either move to the private sector or you drop out,” he said.

Mr Kovey added that their study also revealed that about 5,000 schools were found to be housed under trees.

This he said exposes the children to "very harsh conditions not ideal for studies.”

"You agree with me that any learning that is under trees is exposed to harsh weather conditions and so the attention the concentration of the students and the teachers will not be as effective as those who are housed in a structure."

Mr Kovey said several other schools do not have furniture and those with furniture were also not found to be conducive for learning.

He said currently 80 students per class are entitled to 20 textbooks wondering how the children can cope with this type of learning.

Mr Kovey also raised concerns over the education system not catering for persons with disability.

“We have learners with a disability but our system does not cater for persons with a disability some of them need assistive devices to help them understand but do we these devices,” he questioned

He said if the country wants to make a mark in education then there is a need for a conscious effort in addressing some of these challenges.

Mr Kovey also called for investment in the education sector to meet the needs of the children.

“If you look at the 21 century what the child needs now is something that is of economic importance, so when they go to social media to put out all those things they are doing that for financial purposes.

"Therefore, can we develop a curriculum that may not necessarily give them the negative aspect but can help them develop apps at the early level so that they acquire the positive side of technology in education delivery right from KG to the primary level.

"Now the competition among them will be who can develop the best apps that serve society needs instead of posing nude to attract viewers for money,” he added.

Mr Kovey called for the revision of some of the courses to reflect the current situations of the world.

”The content of the history can be taught so that the history can make the child build on what their forefathers have done to develop, that is what other countries have done.

"But teaching history for the child to remember when we had independence, who fought for it, that one does not provide any economic benefit.

History should give the child what are the artefacts, what were the things done at that time, what can we added to meet today’s relevance.

"We can have a curriculum that speaks to that and we will still be teaching history that includes all these other things but now the focus is on how we can build on our history," he said.