Eduwatch Demands Accountability for GH¢42.1bn Education Spending in 2026 SONA

Education policy think tank, Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch), has called on President John Dramani Mahama to provide a detailed account of how the government utilised its GH¢42.1 billion education allocation in 2025, ahead of the 2026 State of the Nation Address (SONA) scheduled for Friday, February 27.

In a statement released on Thursday, February 26, the policy advocacy group stressed the need for transparency and accountability in the president’s second SONA, urging him to outline how the funds were deployed to advance his education reform agenda.

Eduwatch recalled that during the 2025 SONA, President Mahama introduced an ambitious education transformation plan built around 41 strategic initiatives aimed at improving teaching and learning outcomes across the country.

With a full budget cycle completed since the implementation of the reforms, Eduwatch expects the president to provide a comprehensive update on the utilisation of the education budget, highlight major achievements recorded over the past year, and present measurable outcomes of the policy interventions.

“One year after implementing a full budget cycle with a significant allocation of GH¢42.1 billion to education in 2025, Eduwatch expects His Excellency to provide an account of how the funds were applied in pursuit of his education vision, as well as key accomplishments, challenges, and mitigation strategies to improve policy and budgetary efficiency,” the statement noted.

The think tank further urged the government to openly acknowledge challenges encountered in implementing the reforms and outline practical measures to strengthen policy delivery and improve financial management within the education sector.

Beyond accountability on past spending, Eduwatch identified teacher recruitment and deployment as a critical priority for 2026. The organisation expressed concern that the absence of teacher recruitment during the 2025 financial year has worsened staffing challenges, particularly in underserved basic schools in rural and deprived communities.

According to Eduwatch, many of these communities were already facing severe teacher shortages before 2025, and the failure to recruit additional teachers has deepened the crisis, potentially affecting quality education delivery.

The think tank therefore called for urgent measures to address staffing gaps and strengthen the education system’s capacity to deliver equitable learning opportunities nationwide.