Government budget for the implementation of the country’s Inclusive Education policy has been dropped significantly, Capacity Building Manager at Star Ghana Foundation, Ms Eunice Agbenyadzi, has revealed.
“In 2018 its [budget] constituted 0.3%, in 2019 it dropped to 0.1% at a time we are pledging to increase allocation,” she stated.
She however said government has promised to increase the budget allocation by 1.5 per cent by December to aid the inclusive education policy
Ms Agbenyadzi was speaking at the second public lecture on Inclusive Education, organised by Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC) in partnership with Media General in Accra on Thursday.
The Inclusive Education Policy defines the strategic path of the government for the education of all children with special educational needs.
She observed that financing gap makes it difficult to properly implement the policy, hence underscored the need to engage government on the issue.
She commended the government on the pockets of successes that have been chalked as regards the Inclusive Education policy.
But she said there is still more to do if Ghana is to effectively implement the policy to derive the expected results.
She noted Star Ghana Foundation and other civil society organisations are collaborating with government to ensure that there is effective and efficient execution of social policies
According to her, the government at the 2018 Global Disability Summit in UK, expressed its commitment to strengthening disability inclusion in the country.
“Government promised to make infrastructure accessible to all and also embed a disability inclusion training for teacher trainees to equip them engage and appropriately assist students with disability,” she said.
Ms called for a timely engagement with stakeholders like the Finance and Education ministries to ensure that government lives up to its promises, noting that “the right to education is a precursor to other rights.”
By Ferdinard Tiekon|3news.com|Ghana