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| Report on Capitation Grant presented |
9/24/2007 |
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Cape Coast, Sept. 22, GNA - Mr Ignatius Obeng, Lecturer in Social Studies at University of Education, Winneba, on Friday said the Capitation Grant introduced to enhance school enrolment in the country, should be supported and not criticized.
He said there should be suggestions and recommendations on the disbursement of the grant to facilitate its smooth implementation.
Mr Obeng made the call at a Stakeholders Dissemination Forum on Research Findings on the Capitation Grant and Teacher Deployment in the Central Region at Cape Coast.
He undertook the research jointly with Dr William Ahadzi, a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Ghana, Legon between mid-December 2005 and February 2006.
It covered 168 schools in 17 districts in six regions. The districts in the Central Region are Cape Coast Municipality, Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA) and Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese Districts. The research was geared towards assessing problems associated with the grant, teaching and learning, pupil-teacher ratio, school enrolment and management of the grant.
Mr Obeng said strategies for the effective management of the grant, should be insistence on the preparation of School Performance Improvement Plans (SPIPs), monthly submission of expenditures and auditing, filling of activity completion forms and opening of bank accounts for the grant.
He noted that there was delay in the disbursement of the grant from the national to the district level and during the 2005/2006 academic year Cape Coast Municipality received 346,809,000 cedis instead of the expected allocation of 902,820,000 as the first tranche.
Mr Obeng said each pupil was therefore allocated 11,524 cedis instead of 30,000 cedis, although primary school enrolment had increased from 19,909 to 22,013.
He said in some districts the grant had not been allocated for a year, there was lack of transparency and accountability in the disbursement of the money.
During an open forum, some teachers expressed concern about the delay in the disbursement of the grant that was affecting effective teaching and learning.
They pointed out that with the grant, most parents were not willing to contribute towards the development of schools because government had taken up payment of their children''s fees and failed to attend PTA meetings.Source:
GNA
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