SHOCKING: ¢740bn to train 250 doctors

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Category: The WorkShop

Created on Wednesday, 23 May 2012 00:00

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SHOCKING: ¢740bn to train 250 doctors

The New Patriotic Party (NPP)has said that it will put to shame all doubting Thomases who think the party cannot execute the proposed Inner City Development Fund popularly referred to as the ‘Zongo’ fund when voted to power.

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Incest: Two siblings give birth to a baby boy

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Category: Youth News

Created on Tuesday, 22 May 2012 00:00

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Incest: Two siblings give birth to a baby boy

A 50-year-old woman, Francisca Hackman has been sentenced to 7 years imprisonment by the Cape Coast Circuit Court for aiding and abetting incest involving her two children.

According to Joy FM's Central regional correspondent, Richard Kojo Nyarko, Madam Hackman was jailed for aiding the marriage between her 19-year old daughter and her 22-year-old son.

The two children, Kweku Mensah, a driver’s mate and Ama Esumaba, unemployed, pleaded not guilty to the charge of incest.

The court therefore remanded Kweku Mensah to prison custody whereas Ama was granted bail of Ghc 2,000 with one surety due to the fact that she was nursing a baby.

Prosecuting Chief Inspector Francis Ockom told the court, Mensah and the sister who reside in the same area, Abora-Abaka in the Abora-Asebu-Kwamankese District of the Central region have been having sex for about two years with the support of their mother.

He explained that one of the daughters who heard about the sexual relationship of her siblings, confronted the mother who warned her to keep quiet on the issue.

The Chief Prosecutor added the relationship between the two siblings resulted in a pregnancy which was aborted due their mother’s persuasion.

He narrated that the sexual relationship continued between the two siblings after the abortion and this resulted in another pregnancy leading to the birth of the six-week old boy.

Chief Inspector Ockom further stated that Francisca took Ghc 40 from Mensah and was even demanding more when Mensah threatened to beat her up.

It was at this point that the three were arrested and arraigned before court. The case has been adjourned to June 6.

From: Richard Nii Abbey/Myjoyonline.com

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NDC Blows GH¢160m On Scholarship

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Category: The NoticeBoard

Created on Wednesday, 23 May 2012 00:00

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NDC Blows GH¢160m On Scholarship

{sidebar id=10 align=right}Government is spending GH¢160,510,000 on selected children and wards of ‘party cronies’ to study medicine in Cuba.

The 250-student delegation left Ghana last Monday, May 21, 2012 to begin the 6-year course under the new medical cooperation agreement between Ghana and Cuba.

The Cuban government is paying nothing but rather the Ghana government taking all the costs involved, totalling GH¢160 million in a deal brokered by Vice President John Mahama.

The criteria for the selection of the candidates and the cost involved have raised questions.

In spite of the fact that government has kept details of the programme under wraps, DAILY GUIDE has stumbled on copies of documents covering the deal.

In all, the Presidency, Ministers and the Scholarships Secretariat itself, were made to submit a ‘protocol’ list of 138 individuals whilst the Office of the Vice President and that of the National Security Coordinator, Lt. Col. Larry Gbevlo-Lartey (Rtd), increased the number with a supplementary list of 41 names.

All 10 regional caucus chairmen of the ruling NDCs were equally given concessions to submit a list of party faithful for consideration as well as ministers and their surrogates.

The regional distribution of the largesse clearly ignored indigenes of the Ashanti Region with Akan names absent. Those who were considered for the largesse in the Ashanti Region bear Islamic names, suggesting that northerners living in the region were considered in favour of their Akan counterparts in a clear case of regional imbalance.

This showed that the selection was tainted with political consideration and cronyism.

Some had their names under various caucuses in the selection criteria to boost their chances.

In a ‘secret’ cabinet memo from former Health Minister, Joseph Yieleh Chireh, dated August 18, 2011, which was approved by Chief of Staff, John Henry Martey Newman, he sought to justify the amount being spent on the training of 250 individuals relating to its relevance to the current doctor-patient ratio in Ghana which stands at 1:11,500.

For this reason, he explained that “majority of the populace does not have ready access to the services of a doctor.”

He pegged the cost of training a Senior High School (SHS) graduate as medical officer in Cuba at Cuc30, 750.00, the equivalent of GH¢50, 660.12 a year.

It would therefore cost the nation GH¢10, 132, 024.00 to train 200 students to read medicine in Cuba each year and GH¢60, 792, 144.00 for the next 6 years that they are scheduled to be there, whilst an amount of GH¢48,189.12 would be spent on another 50 students per annum to receive specialist training in that country.

This works out to GH¢2,409, 456, making the total budget for the 4-year period that they would undergo the specialist training an amount of GH¢9, 637, 824.00 whilst the budget for the basic training of doctors and specialists is GH¢74,344, 960.00 for the period under review.

For the first year, 2012, government is expected to cough up an amount of GH¢14, 498, 960 whilst the total cost of budget for the services of the 300 Cuban doctors who are currently in Ghana involves GH¢14, 360, 850.00 per annum.

Each of these Cuban doctors in Ghana is being maintained at a cost of well over GH¢48,000 per annum including a return air-ticket (economy class) each for annual leave, travel allowance, free meals, free accommodation, transport to work, utility charges, cost of participation in annual scientific seminar etc.

Checks by DAILY GUIDE have established that this exclusive privilege to the ordinary Cuban medical doctor in Ghana is not available to the Ghanaian medical consultant (specialist) let alone the house officer.

These developments come in the wake of unsettled salary grievances and hospital infrastructure problems at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH).

The cost involved in training a medical student at the University of Ghana Medical School (UGMS) currently stands at GH¢700.00 per annum for regular students and GH¢3, 000 for the fee-paying students.

With the problem of inadequate infrastructure in the country’s medical schools remaining unresolved and parents’ continuous worry over the fact that their wards cannot get access to medical education in Ghana, some pundits have suggested that the money being pumped into Cuba could have otherwise been used to resource the country’s medical schools to increase the enrolment.

Some people believe that 250 students can be absorbed by one of the country’s public medical schools if half of the money was given to them to upgrade their facilities.

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

Source: Daily Guide/Ghana

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UK aid for education in east Africa is failing

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Category: The ClassRoom

Created on Friday, 18 May 2012 00:00

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UK aid for education in east Africa is failing

DfiD aid programmes pay too much attention to enrolment and not enough to whether children are learning, says report

Claire Provost

UK aid programmes to support education in three east African countries – together worth more than £1bn – are failing to improve children's basic literacy and maths skills, according to a report published on Friday by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI).

The commission said UK aid has helped fund the expansion of education systems in Ethiopia, Rwanda and Tanzania, boosting enrolment and helping close the gender gap in local schools. However, it criticised the Department for International Development (DfiD) for its "lack of attention" to whether children are actually learning.

"The quality of education being provided to most children in these countries is so low that it seriously detracts from the development impact of DfiD's educational assistance," said the report, which failed to find evidence that DfiD was considering "basic preconditions for learning" such as whether students and teachers actually attend class after the first day.

"To achieve near-universal primary enrolment but with a large majority of pupils failing to attain basic levels of literacy or numeracy is not, in our view, a successful development result. It represents poor value for money both for the UK's assistance and for national budgets," said the report giving the programmes an "amber-red" rating signifying that they need significant improvements.

DfiD funding for education in the three countries is expected to top £1bn over the 2005-2015 period. The majority of this has been delivered through "budget support" – money given directly to recipient country governments. While this has helped DfiD to concentrate on promoting policy reforms, said ICAI, the department should now consider a more "hands-on approach".

More should be done to help local ministries of education tackle the practical obstacles to improving quality, said the report, pointing to issues such as the need for teachers to travel miles to collect their salaries, delays in providing funding to schools, corrupt inspection practices, and bureaucratic procedures for buying textbooks.

Over the past decade, donor funding for education has soared as countries race to meet the millennium development goal to ensure all children complete a full course of primary school by 2015. But critics say the focus on getting increasing numbers of children in school has often come at the cost of declining quality of education.

"The assumption that has underpinned past donor support to education – that a simple focus on enrolment would translate into learning – stands disproved," says the report. "There is a clear, common message: a major shift in approach is needed."

In 2010-11, education was the fastest-growing part of Dfid's bilateral aid budget. The ICAI report cites data from DfiD's country-level plans, compiled and analysed by the Guardian last year, suggesting that education will grow to become the single largest sector for the department's bilateral aid by 2014.

A second ICAI evaluation, also published on Friday, said UK funding for education and health efforts in India's Bihar state have succeeded in improving both the quantity and quality of local services. A third report said channelling UK aid directly through recipient governments – "budget support" – has been largely "effective", but that its value varies from country to country.

Graham Ward, ICAI chief commissioner, said: "These reports show that some of DfID's work is having a real impact on the lives of the poorest people, particularly in India, which has seen considerable improvements in health and education. They also show, however, that there is more to do to get the most out of budget support and to make sure that education programmes in east Africa build on progress in enrolment to focus on ensuring a good education."

Joseph O'Reilly, chairman of the policy group for the Global Campaign for Education UK and head of education at Save the Children, said ICAI's reports will "provide extra impetus" for efforts to improve the quality of education in poor countries.

He welcomed the recommendation that DfiD support local communities to monitor education spending and promote accountability. "DfID needs to ensure that its investments are effective and working with communities to help them monitor what's happening is an essential element that DfID should prioritise."

International development secretary Andrew Mitchell said: "We will use their [ICAI] findings to further improve the way we deliver aid around the world."

He added: "In the past there has been too much emphasis on just getting children through the door and not enough on quality. The coalition government is addressing this with our pilots on payment for results for education in Ethiopia, Rwanda and Tanzania.

"We are clear that it is not enough to simply have children sitting in a classroom."

Source: The Guardian UK

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