Mr Divine Kpe, Senior Programmes Officer at the Africa Education Watch, has asked the Ministry of Education to allocate at least 70 per cent of Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to address infrastructure challenges in schools. He called for 50 per cent of the allocation to be for basic education infrastructure, out of which 30 per cent should be solely on the provision of desks. Mr Kpe made the recommendations during a presentation of findings from a Scooping Study Report on the Impact of Desk Deficits in Public Basic Schools on Girls' Participation in Basic Education in Ghana. He said analysis of recent allocations of the Fund showed that more of the resources were committed to non-infrastructure activities, such as the provisions of laptops for teachers and scholarships, against infrastructure projects. 'GETFund allocation to infrastructure projects across all levels of education increased from GHC 198.7 million in 2021 to GHC 856.0 million in 2022 (representing a 331 per cent increment) and thereaft er declined to GHC 383.9 million in 2023 (representing a 55 per cent decline).' 'On the other hand, the allocation to non-infrastructure projects increased from GHC 116.9 million in 2021 to GHC 503.3 million in 2022 (representing a 330 per cent increment), and further increased to GHC 978.5 million in 2023 (representing a 95 per cent increment),' he noted. Mr Kpe urged the MoE and District Assemblies to commit to a policy of ensuring that no basic school infrastructure contract was awarded without the full complement of school furniture, including desks and chairs. He said they should design and implement a furniture resource mobilisation strategy that involved Coporate Ghana, Faith-Based Organisations, Non-Governmental Organisations, and the Forestry Commission. He stressed that could be done within the context of the Infrastructural Planing and Development Policy Framework. Mr Kpe said the unavailability of desks at basic schools had a bearing on the rate of school dropout, saying, most pupils absented themselves or did not go to school due to the unavailability of desks. He said the situation was more worrying for girls, who did not have sitting positions and ended up exposing themselves. Meanwhile, a total of 2.3 million basic school pupils, representing 40 per cent of pupils from Kindergarten to Junior High School, across Ghana, are without desks as of a 2021, according to data from the Ministry of Education's (MoE) Education Management Information System. While the national desk shortage is 40 per cent, all the six regions in the northern part of Ghana, together with the Bono East and Oti regions have ratios above the national percentage. The rate in North East is as high as 80 per cent; Northern, 70 per cent; Savannah, 60 per cent; Upper East, 60 per cent; Bono East, 60 per cent; Upper West, 50 per cent and Oti, 50 per cent. Source: Ghana News Agency