The Ministry of Education (MOE) is distributing over 40,000 pieces of furniture to basic schools across the country to address infrastructure challenges and improve quality education.
The furniture, which includes dual desks, library chairs and tables, teacher’s chairs, notice boards, and bookshelves, among others, is part of a nationwide programme to distribute items to basic schools in need.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Mr Kwasi Kwarteng, the Spokesperson, MOE, said the Government had dispatched 5,000 pieces of furniture to over 80 basic schools in the Kpandai Education Directorate in the Northern region.
According to him, the initiative, which is a demand-driven approach, aims to create an enabling and conducive environment in classrooms to improve educational outcomes.
He said the introduction of the Free Senior High School (SHS) concept in 2017 had led to increased enrolment and demand for school infrastructure to facilitate effective teaching and learning.
Mr Kwarteng said the Government desired to distribute the right quantity of furniture to the schools, depending on the demands of the schools, to avoid distributing the items to schools that already had them.
He assured the public that the Government was ready to provide the necessary resources to all schools to boost the growth of the country’s education.
Checks at the MOE revealed that since 2017, the Government has distributed a total of 1,155,240 pieces of furniture to Senior High and basic schools across the country.
Out of the total, 925,793 were distributed to the SHS and 229,447 to the basic schools in the country.
Also, a total of 65,779 pieces of furniture were supplied to basic schools in 2018, 54,000 in 2020, and 69,459 in 2021.
The SHS received 65,779 pieces of furniture in 2018, 54,000 in 2020, 69,459 in 2021, and 40,209 in ongoing furniture distribution this year.
A policy report by Africa Education Watch says about 5.8 million children in Ghana’s public basic schools lack desks.
