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Teacher Unions in Education has appealed to the government to address without delay the inadequate funding of public basic schools, to reverse the poor quality of education in the country.

He said Government must increase investment in infrastructure development in public schools, especially at the basic level to make it attractive like the private schools.

Mr Samuel Frank Dadzie, Head of Research, National Association of Graduate Teachers, speaking at a workshop of the Teachers Union on Commercialisation of Education in Ghana, said the expansion of private schools was due to low investment by government in public education.

He said more than 60 per cent of public schools have no laboratories, running water, amongst others.

He said the education unions demand an increase in investment in teacher education including continuous professional development.

Mr Dadzie therefore called on Government for the passage of laws that would limit the continued expansion of private schools.

He said the growing commercialisation and privatisation of education has received endorsement from some development partners.

He alleged that Omega school franchise in the country is an example of the trend, which is a chain of ‘low-fee’ private school targeting poorest families.

He said these schools that promise to help the poor by increasing access, actually use the principle of ‘low margin high-volume’ to exploit the poor.

“The chain has grown to over a number of schools delivering schooling to number students across the country; they claim that their model is affordable ‘pay-as-you-learn’, and is equivalent to out-of-pocket cost of sending to a ‘free’ government school.

“The importance of quality teaching for quality education cannot be underestimated, yet evidence from low-free private school’s points to an increase in part time hiring, proliferation of contractual employment, a rise in the number of untrained staff”, he said

Mr Dadzie said the alleged Omega’s operation was driven by profit motive and the expansion of the school was a manifestation of the growing commercialisation and privatisation of education in Ghana and it is a threat to the achievement of the UN SDG adopted in 2015.

He said education is a public service hence commercialisation and privatisation makes it a commodity and students customers.

He called on civil society organisations and the teachers union to campaign for-profit, low-free private schools. sponsors.

He charged Government to implement and enforce legislation framework to ensure the achievement of quality education.