Challenging Heights, a child-focused NGO, is calling on the government to release all outstanding arrears of the Capitation Grant to public basic schools ahead of their re-opening.

According to the organization, this will mitigate the frustrations currently being faced by heads of basic schools.

The president of Challenging Heights, James Kofi Annan, explained that public basic schools are due to re-open for the third term of the 2022 academic year, and there are reports that all public basic schools are owed capitation grants, reportedly in excess of GHC300 million.  

The Capitation Grant was introduced in the 2003/2004 academic year to offer Free, Compulsory, Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) for all school-going children in Ghana, in fulfilment of Article 25(1)(a) of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution, which states that, “basic education shall be free, compulsory, and available to all”.

The scheme was therefore introduced to replace all fees paid by parents in public basic schools, in order to expand access, and to support school performance improvement efforts, by the schools.

Currently, the government pays GHC10 per child per term. However, the funds' intended benefits for Ghana's educational system are essentially being undermined by the delay in its release.

Available information reveals that the delay in releasing the funds is forcing heads of some basic schools to levy parents to help run their schools.

According to reports, many headteachers are asking their district directors to remove them from their positions and replace them with regular teachers because of the ongoing financial difficulties and frustrations caused by the grant's unjustified delays. In some districts, this phenomenon has only recently been identified, and it tends to undermine efforts to boost teacher motivation.

A report by Challenging Heights in June 2022 indicated that there are over 60% of children of school going age living along Lake Volta that are into child labour. One of the issues that the Capitation Grant is intended to address is child labour.

Jams Kofi Annan further argued that: "The Capitation Grants paid by the government were to cover general stationery and management, office machinery, first aid, building maintenance, sporting fees, cultural fees, sanitation fees, furniture and tools, textbook user fees, practical fees, as well as machinery for technical schools and institutions.”

He added that given the directive by the Ghana Education Service to head teachers not to charge levies and pre-finance activities under their supervision, his organization in addition, wishes to advocate for a relook at the financial framework of the grant. 

“Government should put in place measures to have a sustainable means of generating funds to support the management and administration of basic schools, amidst the persistent unreliable inflow of the grant, especially in impoverished settlements with high illiteracy rates," he averred.