Location
The Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD- Ghana) is an independent, nonpartisan and nonprofit policy-oriented think tank in Accra, Ghana. Founded in 1998, the Center is dedicated to the promotion of democracy, good governance and the development of a liberal political and economic environment in Ghana in particular and Africa in general. In so doing, CDD-Ghana seeks to enhance the democratic content of public policy and to advance the cause of constitutionalism, individual liberty, the rule of law, and integrity in public life. This mission is pursued through research and advocacy aimed at promoting transparency, accountability and integrity in the exercise of administrative and political discretion and in the allocation and use of public resources to enhance the principles of democracy and good governance.
The Center engages in activities that help to shape and influence policy formulation in Ghana. CDD’s core thematic areas include Election Support, Constitutional Development, Transparency and Accountability, Local Government, Human Rights and Environmental Governance. The Center is also a core partner for the Afrobarometer Project. CDD also organizes policy dialogues and training workshops for senior government officials, policy makers, civil society leaders and the private sector. It conducts high level governance reviews and assessments for key institutions and organisations in Africa and around the world. They include organisations such as United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), African Development Bank (AFDB), etc.
Since 2008, CDD has conducted two studies on promoting transparency and accountability in education in Ghana under the Transparency and Accountability Project. The first project (TAP I) focused on Teacher Absenteeism in public primary schools in Ghana whiles the second (TAP II) tracked and identified leakages in the Management and Disbursement of the Capitation Grant (a school fees abolition program) in public primary schools in Ghana. These two projects were aimed at promoting prudent utilization of public resources in the districts and schools. The current three–year program (TAP III) is a follow-up to the previous projects and it is aimed at tracking leakages in the disbursement and usage of textbooks and other supplementary materials in basic schools in Ghana.
TAP PROJECT
Adequate access to textbooks (i.e. one relevant textbook per student) is an important indicator of the quality of education in Ghana. Under the Ghana Ministry of Education policy, each student in basic schools should have access on an individual basis’ to three government-designated core textbooks, namely, English, Mathematics, and Science (RECOUP, 2008, p. 43; NESAR, 2010). To attain this policy goal, expenditure on textbook continue to constitute about 85% of the list of the Ministry’s procurement transactions since 2007 (MOE, 2009, P.9; NESAR, 2010), and thus contributing to the increase in total education expenditure, as a percentage of GDP, from 6.20 percent in 2003 to 10.1 percent in 2009 (NESAR, 2010). Notwithstanding the huge investments and the fact that textbooks are essential inputs to achieve intended educational outcomes (World Bank, 2004, p. 43), data on textbook ratio in Ghanaian public primary schools appear fragmentary and sometimes contradictory. On average, a Ghanaian child has fewer than 2 text books at the primary school level and 2.5 text books at the Junior High School level. In northern Ghana, the core textbook ratio is far worse in the deprived areas (NNED, 2006 cited in RECOUP, 2008, p. 44). It is in line with this and against the backdrop that this project will seek to track possible leakages in the distribution, management and use of textbooks and other instructional materials in public primary schools in Ghana. The study will also seek to assess the extent of access to the available textbooks and other instructional materials in and out of the school environment.
