The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, has said Ghana is in a good position to achieve the sustainable development goal (SDG) targets on quality education – SDG 4.
He said the government’s investment in education infrastructure, rolling out of sound policies and deployment of innovation in the sector, had put it in a better place to achieve SDG 4 by 2030.
In particular, the minister said the free senior high school (FSHS) policy had significantly improved the country’s chances of meeting SDG 4.1.
SDG 4.1 requires that by 2030, countries must “ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes.”
The minister stated this at an awards ceremony held at Akosombo in the Eastern Region to climax the Energy Transition and Sustainability Summit.
The summit was organised by Think Energy Media, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), in collaboration with the Association of African Sustainability Practitioners (AASUP).
Corporate institutions and individuals who excelled in various sectors in terms of promoting the SDGs were given awards at the event.
Sound education policy
The minister said the implementation of the FSHS policy in 2017 had broken the barriers to access to secondary education and improved the learning outcomes of children.
“I am optimistic that where we are now with our education in terms of investments, good policies and innovation, Ghana will shock the world by meeting the SDG targets on education. We are on track to meet the indicators under SDG Four,” he stressed.
Dr Adutwum said it was in a bid to consolidate the gains made from the implementation of the policy that Cabinet had approved a bill to sustain FSHS beyond political regimes.
He said through strategic government policies, SDG 4.5 which sought to “eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations,” was within reach.
The minister stressed that what needed to be done going forward, was for all stakeholders to rally around the national flag to pursue the common goal of promoting education anchored on skills acquisition, science, technology and innovation, and which was non-discriminatory as well as relevant to the country’s development needs.
Politics for good
He noted that what had happened to the country’s education through the implementation of the FSHS policy in particular had shown that politics could be a force for the good of society.
“It is the decision of a politician to implement FSHS that has brought this transformation in the education sector, and this tells us that politics should not just be about the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) attacking each other and opposing every good policy that the other side is pursuing. We can use our political power positively to uplift others,” he stressed.
Stronger collaboration
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Think Energy Media, Humphrey Tetteh, underscored the need for stronger collaboration by all stakeholders to ensure that the country accelerated efforts to achieve the SDGs.
He said the award scheme was a platform to motivate companies, institutions and individuals to adopt responsible practices and actions to promote sustainability in their daily lives.
Mr Tetteh said the SDGs needed to be prioritised since they had enormous opportunities for humanity.
He said apart from ensuring a sustainable future, the SDGs were creating a lot of jobs as well as promoting innovation and technological advancement.
“We should not only be transitioning to clean energy of green economy, we must transition our education sector; we must transition our industries; we must transition our road construction and everything else,” he said.
Wake-up call
The Think Energy Media CEO said it was sad that the African continent was lagging behind in the global march to achieve the SDGs.
He underscored the need for Ghana to double efforts in energy transition for a sustainable future.
“The companies should not sit on the fence in the energy transition process; they should start implementing and adopting innovations at their level. “The CEOs of companies should start promoting the transition agenda to help the country achieve the target earlier than projected,” he added.
