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| World Economic Forum on Maths science ranking |
Ghana ranked third in Africa with a value of 4.2, just behind Morocco and Cote D’Ivoire who tied at second with a value of 4.3, with Tunisia being Africa’s best with a value of 4.7.
On the global scale, Singapore ranked first with a value of 6.3, followed by Finland with the same value. Belgium came in third with 6.0.
Tunisia, which is number one in Africa, ranks 31st on the global scale, with Morocco at 52nd, and Cote D’Ivoire at 60th while Ghana ranks 62nd on the global scale. All the top three African countries scored above the medium of 4.0 values.
The 2014 report shows marked improvement in Ghana’s quality ratings in relation to Math and Science. In the 2012 report on quality of Math and Science education, Ghana ranked 98th out of 142 countries, with a value of 3.4, which was below the media of 3.9.
Some cynics and perpetual critics of the Mahama-led administration may be strenuously – and even vigorously – running down the achievements of this government, not least in education. But these sharp-shooting mischief-makers have been disarmed by a Global Information Technology Report 2014 compiled by the World Economic Forum that ranks Ghana very high among the best in Africa in quality of math and science education.
The scientific collection of data was based on a questionnaire which posed the question “In your country, how would you assess the quality of math and science education in schools?” countries or economies were rated based on one (1) being extremely poor among the worst in the world; and seven (7) being excellent among the best in the world based on 2012-2013 weighted average.
Nigeria came in at 117 with a score of 3.1, which is below the median of 4.0; while South Africa came in at 148 with a score of 1.9.
According to the report, Ghana scored 58.2% with secondary enrollment rate. This significant achievement in the secondary school level is a manifestation of the interventions introduced at the basic level since 2009.
The marked improvement obviously reflects the high commitment of the nation’s teachers who are continuously sacrificing, usually under very trying conditions, to give of their very best.
Another factor that has obviously complemented the efforts of the nation’s teachers to bring about this the improvement is government’s investments in the education sector, which investment has resulted in progressive growth in enrollment at the basic level.
Government investment in the education sector has resulted in significant growth in the number of schools with KG recording about 17.3% more schools blocks; primary, 11.0% and JHS 21.8% respectively.
Other achievements of the government in the education sector include;
A total of 2,064 Basic school projects have been under construction 432 of these were founded from regular Government of Ghana (GoG) funds and 1,632 funded from GETFUND. More than half of these projects have been completed and handed over to.
Over 100 million exercise books have been distributed since 2009. In 2013 alone, 32 million exercise books were distributed to 4,768,806 pupils across the country while 10 million exercise books will be distributed in 2014.
In 2013, 170,221 pupils were supplied with free school uniforms and 10,000 more uniforms will be distributed in 2014.
In 2013, alone, 12.5 million English, Mathematics and Science Core Textbooks were distributed in public Primary and JHS School which enabled Ghana to exceed the universal Textbooks- pupil ratio of three textbooks per pupil. Currently Ghana’s textbook – pupil ratio stands at four textbooks per pupil. Before this feat the ratio stood at 1 textbook for three pupils.
An amount of GH¢24,472,840 was paid in capitation grant to cover 5, 741.198 representing 30% of pupils in Public Basic Schools for 2012/2013 academic year.
These Investments are obviously beginning to yield their desired fruits.
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