Crisis Up North

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Created on Thursday, 16 January 2014 00:00

Crisis Up North

15 January 2014

We have observed the ado that has engulfed management of senior high schools in the Northern parts of the country.

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As we compose this piece, students in these schools are at home awaiting the announcement to return to school.

With the usual “arrangements are at advanced stage to have money released by the Finance Ministry” button activated for the use of state-employed PROs, all we can do is wait until the state makes good its promise.

An indefinite wait is not good for an education system that is already suffering a regrettable watering of its quality, the worst since independence if you like.

We are happy though that final year students have been taken in so they can adequately prepare for their examinations.

Had the non-release of funds to these schools been limited to this term, we would not have had cause to be whingeing: not so however, when school administrators have not received funds for the past two terms.

We are finding it difficult making sense out of the contradiction in this whole issue about the pecuniary challenges being faced by state institutions.

While the economy is said to be buoyant by government and its minders, in another vein Ghanaians are told that there is shortage of funds to adequately run the government machinery.

When those at the helm live in perpetual denial about the reality of the state of the public kitty and the factors which led to the sorry state, there is cause for worry.

We might not have answers to the questions prompted by the present sorry state of the country. When propaganda becomes state policy providing convenient veneer for the shortcomings of government, it would not be long before the truth stands out in the form of what has befallen senior high schools up North.

The truth of the crisis which has hit the Northern parts of the country is yet to be told. We have heard various explanations about interventions by various players and a promise about a possible end of the crisis by the end of this week.

We have also been told that the Scholarships Secretariat which is dependent on provision from the Finance Ministry is responsible for the disbursement of such funds to schools in the Northern Regions. The bottom-line is that the Finance Ministry does not have money readily available. The reason? Your guess is as good as ours.

Many do not trust government and so when poor state-paid PROs intervene on behalf of their bosses and organizations we can listen and yawn in disbelief.

Bad governance comes in many forms. One of them is when funds do not reach their destinations at the appropriate time.

Source: Daily Guide/Ghana