The case for Fee Free Secondary Education in Ghana

 INTRODUCTION

I have been following the debate on FEE FREE SHS with keen interest. Here are my pick:

THE ISSUES

1. DEFINING CONCEPT OF QUALITY OF EDUCATION IS FLUID. 

The goal of achieving universal primary education (UPE) has been on the international agenda since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirmed, in 1948, that elementary education was to be made freely and compulsorily available for all children in all nations.The achievement of universal participation in education will be fundamentally dependent upon the quality of education available. What constitutes quality must be clearly defined. Is it just examinations outcomes or includes level of critical thinking, literacy and numeracy? If only examination performance is used as basis, there is very huge gap. Let me illustrate this point with personal observation. When I relocated to 6th Form in the Central Region from the Western Region, I observed that the O/Level failure at my new school was unbelievable. At the same time, people outside this school rated albeit erroneously as one of the best in Ghana. Now I identified the crux of the matter as lying with the method used to measure or perceive quality of education. Absolute numbers disguise failure rates but ratios highlight real performance relative to others. Apparently in my new school, only the absolute numbers of success was being highlighted and because the register many more candidates, the school appeared to be doing 'excellent'. Reality however was that absolute number of candidates failing just O/Level alone was more than combine all the O/Level and A/Level candidates in my previous school. Similarly GES started using ratios of just examination outcomes, very relatively unknown schools like Pope John's (Koforidua) and St. James (Sunyani) topped the chart on several occasions. In any case the reduction of pass average for entry to SHS from aggregate 30 to 45 indicates the fluidity of the concept of quality. Again it debunks the argument that there ain't classroom to accommodate pupils entering SHS. Quality perception is often a facade. Quality education sets out the desirable characteristics of learners (healthy, motivated students), processes (competent teachers using active pedagogies), content (relevant curricula) and
systems (good governance and equitable resource allocation).

2. No clear evidence exists linking ONLY FEE payable as determinant of quality of education. Other factors are at play and fee could be merely one of those complementary factors. Millennium Development Goal TWO (MDG2: Achieve Universal Primary Education) though does not specifically mention fee paying in both the Target 3 and and Indicators 6-8, fee is implied as one of the barriers to achieving MDG2. Further, our current definition of basic education ending at JHS (age 15) rules out the complete attainment of MDG2 as Indicator 8 (Literacy rate of 15-24 year-olds must meet UNESCO recommendations) is outside our current scope by definition of basic education.

3. Contrary to what people are saying, over 95% of all secondary schools in Ghana are already Government-assisted including bearing larger chunk of tuition. Indeed many of the good schools were originally either mission or community founded but these were absolved by government in early post independence period. Indeed I am a product of Catholic founded schools based in the Western and Central regions but at no point in time while there do I recall paying more than the Secondary school at 'Woman No Good' in the Wassa Amenfi District. PEOPLE ARE DELIBERATELY CONFUSING OWNERSHIP WITH WHO IS FUNDING WHAT.

4. There exists clear INVERSE RELATIONSHIP IN THE QUALITY OF EDUCATION between government assisted education at the secondary level and basic schools on the one hand, and privately-owned full fee paying basic and secondary schools on the other hand. Almost all the A-rated secondary schools in Ghana are on the government assisted schools list. For the private secondary schools, may be with the exception of GIS, Akosombo International and SOS schools, the rest even struggle to get admissions. Is it any wonder then that despite the struggle parents and wards go through trying to gain admission to government assisted schools, privately owned full fee paying secondary schools keep bombarding us with advert pleading for enrollment? The same however can not be said of the situation at Primary and JHS. Here privately owned full fee paying schools rank among the top echelon of A-rated schools while pupils of the 'cytos' struggle to make the grades required to gain admission to secondary schools. I do not intend to get into the myriad of reasons accounting for this rather bizarre inverse relationship. You experiencing it or having experienced it know them more than I can conjecture or fathom.

5. FEE FREE EDUCATION AT THE SECONDARY LEVEL IS NOT A NOVELTY. Secondary cycle institutions in Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions have enjoyed and continue to enjoy this social intervention for the past 55 years. Can the arguments being raised against the addition of the remaining 7 regions being enrolled on the scheme suffix in the case of northern Ghana? Indeed there is no empirical evidence to back the claim that fee free education in northern Ghana has provided low quality education or churned out low quality citizens either in IQ or performance relative to the quality of education in the other seven region. Can someone come up with the evidence if there is any? By the token of this logic of fee paying and quality education, when will fee free education in Northern Ghana be abolished then? On the contrary,evidence abound of people from the south relocating and in some cases made name changes (took Islamic names) in order to take advantage of the fee free education prevailing in northern Ghana.

6. Closely related to this thinking is the introduction of capitation grant at basic schools. This policy started in 2005 and 8 years is long enough to identify gaps in quality now and quality prior to its introduction. Is there any such empirical data? I have seen the World Bank report of February 2011 extolling its achievements. Even here I need to point out that when the policy started in 2005, the amount was equivalent to US$3.00 but today it is merely US$2.27. This current government has not increased the amount by even a Pesewa. the fact is it is still paying GHS4.50 announced by the then Minister of State in Charge of Finance, Dr. Osei Akoto in the budget read in November 2008. Reports if anything to go by indicate outstanding arrears of close to one whole academic year.

7. In 1987 when the new Jonior Secondary School (JSS now Junior High School - JHS) system was being rolled out on a full scale from its pilot scheme began in the early 1970s to replace the Standard Seven or Middle School Leaving Certificate (MSLC), there were no WORKSHOPS, NO TRAINED TEACHERS, AND SCHOOLS. I remember communities were TASKED to put up their own infrastructure which government then supplied some workshop tools. 

CONCLUSION

By these points I do not imply ignoring learning the lessons necessary for the successful implementation of this social intervention mechanism. All I seek to buttress is strength does not come from what you can do; it comes from overcoming the things you once thought you could not do or attain. For one could never be a winner if one is not part of the race. Ghana must always remember that no metre given, no metre reaped; Ghana must invest in the things of the future and fee free education is one of them, R&D linked to industry must also be one among others. Time invested in improving oneself cuts down on time wasted in disapproving others. Ghana must not choose to settle. She ought to pursue her set goals knowing it is never too late to accomplish the FEE FREE SHS EDUCATION as constitutionally mandated in Article 25. If you and I do not stand firm in this constitutional conviction that secondary education should be made progressively free, Ghana will not stand at all for other nations have implemented it and today they are reaping the positive outcome of this all important social intervention mechanism.

On The Ongoing Energy Crisis in Ghana

Ghana generates electricity from a hydro-thermal mix with the base load (about 55% of electricity generation) coming from the Akosombo and Kpong hydro plants. A third hydro plant, Bui, is still under construction. In the thermal field, dual plants exist for generating electricity from crude and gas sources but in more recent times there has been a reliance on gas because it is a cheaper option. But generation at the Aboadze thermal plant as well as the Sunon Asogli thermal plant has been affected by the supply shutdown by the West Africa Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCo), occasioned by destruction of portions of the Togo-Ghana section of the pipeline by a vessel on the coast of Lome, Togo, on August 28. 

Consequently the authorities initiated load shedding exercise as an interim measure while attempts have been underway to fix the problem. The Government had indicated at the time of the announcement that the load shedding would end by close of October 2012. However since then other confusing promises have come on board including last one by the President at the IEA debate of 15th November 2012 among others some listed below: 

Load shedding to cease by November 30 - VRA .
Load shedding to end by December – GRIDCo assures 
Ghana: Load Shedding Can't End Before 2015

There is also problem with the publicly advertised load management schedule. It is rather erratic and arbitrary leading to complaints from consumers that the exercise has rather been made worse. This situation is having a terrible toll on businesses, on industries and on the livelihood, welfare and social lives of millions of Ghanaians. The intensity of the ongoing load-shedding makes no sense. As stated earlier, There are two main types of power plants which generate power for distribution through the national grid - the power that flows through those overhead lines into your house. There is the hydro dams and then there is the thermal stations as listed in the table below.

PLANT	CAPACITY	STATUS BY 2008
Tema Thermal1	126	On stream
Temal Thermal 2	50	On stream
Mine Reserve Plant	80	On stream
Sunon – Asogli power plant	200	On stream
Osagyefo Power Barge	125	Litigation
Kpone Power Plant	110	2013
CENIT Thermal	126	On trial test
Takoradi T3 VRA Thermal	132	On Trial Test
Bui Hydroelectric VRA Hydro	400	2013
CEN POWER Thermal	110	2013
Takoradi T2 ( Steam Comp)	110	2013

At the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) Presidential debate held on 30th October 2012 at the Radash Hotel in Tamale, a new twist was brought on the energy crisis in Ghana when President John Dramani Mahama gave a far-fetched description. The President said it is caused by gas shortage as a result of damage to pipelines of the West Africa Gas Pipeline Project. However the fundamental problem is much more and the concern is that Ghanaians were not told the truth about the load shedding problem.  

The gas shortage has only taken off cheaper power from Asogli (200 MW). But we have about 226MW of generation capacity (100MW at Takoradi and 126 MW emergency plants at Tema) that could be fired by light crude oil or diesel and which could have more than compensated for the loss of power. The hydro plants CAN produce nearly 1200 MW of power. The thermal ones can turn out about 990MW. In total the country CAN produce just a little less than 2200 MW. Since peak load is about 1800 MW, growing about 10% per year, the country has a theoretical margin of about 400 MW. Though it is not practical to produce at full capacity so the effective reserve is lower than this....but ordinarily our 'installed capacity' is reasonable.

There are 6 thermal plants, three of which have 3 choices of fuel - gas, light crude, and diesel. Two can use either gas or diesel. And one - the Chinese one masterminded by Togbe Afede - uses only gas (though the machines can also use diesel). Gas is usually the cheapest fuel.
Even more interestingly, we need only about 200 million cubic feet of gas a day to power all the thermal plants at a cost of about $1.2m a day. Because gas has to be carried in pipelines, Nigeria is the only practical source. So we co-invested with some multinational oil companies and the governments of Nigeria, Benin and Togo to create a pipeline to transport Nigeria gas.
We expected about 133 million cubic feet of gas a day, which would have gone a very good way to powering most of our thermal plants at reasonable cost. For reasons that no one has ever properly explained, we get only about 60 million cubic feet, notwithstanding contractual pledges.

30 million cubic feet of this goes to Sunon and 15m to the Tema plant. I presume the remaining 15m goes to the Takoradi plant, but like so many things with our power system, it's murky.
With the 30m cubic feet of gas it receives a day, Sunon produces 180 MW out of the installed capacity of 200 MW.  
Here are the questions that must be obvious to you:

1. The lack of gas on its own could only have taken out about 270 MW of power based on the publicly available supply chart. Or a maximum of 360 MW. This is a huge amount of power, but clearly if the rest of the power system was operating normally we should still be seeing production of 1600 MW thereabouts, just 10% below peak load capacity. Why do we have blackouts that frequently throws half the country in darkness. There is a more sinister case of grid decay stuff going on that no one is telling us!

2. Why is Sunon not using diesel oil to keep up a certain level of production when it has turbines that can run on that fuel??? True, it is a private plant, but so far as it sells its power to the VRA the state-owned buyer should have negotiated for backup supply contingency.

3. Who is receiving the 15m cubic feet of gas (in addition to Sunon and Tema)?

4. Why isn't Tema and whoever is receiving that 15m cubic feet of gas per day switching to diesel or light crude, as the case may be? Doing so SHOULD technically mean that the system's supply-demand cycle is only marginally out of balance. And we needn't have load-shedding this bad.

5. What else is the Ministry of Energy not telling us about the mess in the power generation and distribution system?
We can import diesel and light crude from abroad in ship-borne tankers and have been doing so for quite a while. Except that these fuels are expensive and the pricing fluctuates.

If we had a tariff structure that was responsive to the price of fuel and other generation costs, we could run 5 of the thermal plants close to capacity simply by importing the fuel. And provided the rains have been good we can safely generate about 1900 MW even if the one thermal plant that relies on gas alone goes completely offline. But VRA is faced with financial challenges to procure its crude oil requirement for the idle plants because Government has stopped subsidizing the purchase of oil by VRA and has therefore not been allocating to them the quarterly $40 million which the previous Government used to do. The VRA CEO recently complained that Government owes it $300 million. So the matter is simple. Give VRA money to buy crude oil and there will be no load shedding. Gas is cheaper but we could have avoided the load shedding if we were prepared as a nation to spend more rather than wait for the pipelines. Decisive leadership is the answer here. 
In the absence of that be prepared to accommodate those  Eternally Confused Goons (ECG) continually issuing out "Very Regret Announcements" (VRA) over the Dumsor-Dumsor Mess as Ghanaians Really Intensify Debate Concerning Official (GRIDCO) ineptitude.
Acknowledgments: IMANI Alert Desk; Energy Commission; EEI; Mohammed Amin Adam