President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said an educated workforce is an extremely vital component of all the efforts of the country to transform her economy from a raw material producing one to an industrialized economy.
His government’s flagship programme, Free SHS, which has resulted in the nation directing about 23% of its budget into education, the President says is aimed at building the educated workforce base of the country to drive her transformational agenda.
President Akufo-Addo said this on the 29th of July 2021, when he participated in a panel discussion at the ongoing Global Education Summit in the United Kingdom.
The Global Education Summit: Financing GPE 2021-2025 was a key moment for the global community to come together and support quality education for all children.
At the summit, world leaders made 5-year pledges to support GPE’s work and help transform education systems in up to 90 countries and territories.
“What is our goal? I think it is the goal of all of us on the continent…., the transformation of our economies from raw material producing economies to value-added economies so we move away from just providers of just natural resources to value-added economies. But that is not going to be possible if we don’t have an educated workforce” President Akufo-Addo said.
“It, therefore, requires that the investments that we have to make for ensuring that not just as many but all our children have the opportunity to go to school right from kindergarten, through primary to secondary through tertiary education is guaranteed,” the President added.
Healthy or Educated Population
Answering a question on what the African continent ought to prioritize, as in, keeping their populations healthy or educated, President Akufo-Addo noted that leaders and governments on the continent cannot choose between anything of the two. Efforts he says must be made to achieve both a healthy and an educated population in all African States.
“I cannot see that making sure that the population is healthy and also the population getting educated can be conflicting aims. We have to make efforts to achieve both targets” President Akufo-Addo said.
2021 Global Education Summit
Co-hosted by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, the 2021 Global Education Summit: Financing GPE 2021-2025 was the culmination of GPE’s “Raise Your Hand” financing campaign. As a key moment for the global community to come together and support quality education for all children, a centrepiece of the summit was the opportunity for leaders to make 5-year pledges to support GPE’s work to help transform education systems in up to 90 countries and territories.
GPE’s “Raise Your Hand” financing campaign aims to raise at least US$5 billion over five years to support education systems in up to 90 countries and territories, where 80% of the world’s out-of-school children live.
At least $5 billion investment in GPE over five years will help: enable 175 million girls and boys to learn, reach 140 million students with professionally trained teachers, get 88 million more children, including 46 million more girls, in school and save $16 billion through more efficient education spending.