President-elect John Mahama has raised alarms over the severe funding challenges affecting Ghana’s education sector, spanning basic to tertiary institutions.

Speaking at an engagement with stakeholders in the education sector, he highlighted the urgent need for a sustainable funding model, emphasising that the lack of consistent financing is crippling the entire system.

“At the last count, 1.3 million Ghanaian children at the basic level do not have basic furniture to sit and study. And so we have a crisis at the basic level,” he revealed.

He noted inefficiencies in the allocation of funds under the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy, stating, “Even though a lot of money is going to the secondary level, it does not come from a dedicated fund, and there is a lot of waste and inefficiency in the way it is being spent.”

Mahama also expressed concern over tertiary education funding, pointing to the diminishing impact of the GETFund.

“The GETFund, which was a good source of funding, has been collateralised.

Sixty per cent of it has been spent in advance, leaving only 40 per cent to address infrastructure across the educational value chain,” he lamented.

To address these systemic issues, Mahama proposed a National Education Review Conference, stressing, “We should hold a consultative forum to identify all the bottlenecks and craft a sustainable funding model.”