Impact of the Capitation Grant: The Case of Dangme East District
By Kwesi Aggrey

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It was a Friday morning at Bonekope, one of the cluster of villages along the road to the district capital, Ada, and about 15 children were seen playing in the neighbourhood.

"We do not attend school!" was their response when asked why they were not in school.

Pointing to a group of salt mounds nearby, Nene Tettey, an opinion leader, said, "Look at our salt, they've been here for years, we don't have markets for them, how do we feed and clothe our children for school?"

Situations such as this was one of the reasons for the introduction of the capitation grant, explained Mr. Gabriel Dare, the District Co-ordinating Director.

According to Mr. Dare, the grant is one of the poverty reduction policies of government to facilitate basic education for all Ghanaians. He said the grant entitles each school pupil to an amount of 30,000 cedis each year; and schools need not charge any additional fees.

Bonekope is predominantly a salt mining community of about 150 inhabitants with other outlying hamlets dotted around. The community has one old primary school. Close to the school itself, many of the pupils were busily fetching water from a nearby pond.

Pottable water is also a major problem in the area.

The story was a bit different at Kasseh, a fairly large village and a market centre. Not many children are seen around during school hours, although some school children were roaming the market area, on a market day.

At Ada, the district capital, even though enrollments have generally increased as a result of the capitation grant, it was not uniformly so with all the schools. For example, the Presbyterian and Methodist schools were just a few meters apart but whereas enrollments for Presby Junior Secondary School alone was 268 as against 225 the previous year, the total enrollment for the Methodist school - both Primary and J.S.S - was given as 264, as against 238 the previous year.

The island schools of Aflive, Azizakope, and Tualikope had a unique problem in addition to the low enrollments. Over here the issue of girl-child education which is a national concern is not a problem. The reverse is the case - few boys are in school - as most them assist their parents in oyster farming.

Mr. G.E. Nanor, a Deputy Director in charge of Supervision at the District Education Office said the grant had come in handy as many parent had taken the opportunity to enroll their children.

"Enrollment levels have shot up significantly", he said. "For example nursery admission rose from 948 in 2004/5 to 2967 in 2005/6, whereas primary enrollment increased from 10,524 in 2004/5 to 17,361 in 2005/6."

The Deputy Director however said that in spite of the opportunity provided by the grant, some parents still were not in the position to send their children to school. He cited the island villages as some of the places where enrollments had not gone up in spite of the capitation grant. This, he attributed to the lucrative oyster farming in the Volta River which most boys assist parents as farm hands.

But the oyster farming was only one side of the issue. Many parents genuinely could not afford school uniforms, basic stationery, and sometimes food to assist the children to attend school.

To save the situation, Mr. Nanor said the District Education Office in collaboration with the District Assembly had initiated a programme to assist needy children with school uniforms to be able to attend school.

The District Co-ordinating Director confirmed the school uniform initiative and added that the Assembly considers education as one of its priority areas and therefore, in addition to the capitation grant, allocates close to 45 percent of its budget to that sector. He said the Assembly had so far supplied 100 pieces of school uniforms and about 9000 exercise books to Basic Schools.

But in spite of these efforts enrollments are still low in some communities. The Assembly's Education Committee was therefore arranging to get the NEPAD School Feeding Programme to be expanded to four other deprived communities namely Obane, Inglisi, Terhey, and Amoyawkope.

Another related issue about the grant was the absence of adequate motivation package for teachers for the additional responsibility that comes with increased enrollments. Some teachers thus have reservations about the grant.

"Nobody seems to recognize that the increase in enrollments has brought additional load and responsibility to the teacher which is yet to reflect his pay packet", said Mathias Kotta, a teacher at the Presbyterian Junior Secondary School.

Mr. Yiadom Boakye, 49, chairman of the Parent Teacher Association of the school, however, described the grant as a welcome relief to parents, but his concern was the delay in its release, and the disbursement pattern where a sizeable portion goes to the District and the Regional Education offices for sports and cultural activities.

"The formula therefore leaves practically nothing for minor repairs and other physical development; and you know one does not have to rely on the Assembly for assistance which takes years to come", he said.

In spite of all the benefits of the capitation grant, it appears not all parents know about it. For example, Delicious Karbornor is a middle-aged parent from Tualikope, one of the island villages, and did not seem to have heard of the grant, but has two boys and two girls.

The boys dropped out of school about four years ago, and have since been with their father in the oyster business. The girls are enrolled, but have to sell on market days.

"The boys work to bring the oyster so they [the girls] must also help with the sales to bring money home", she said.