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Good evening, senior. Yes, good evening. Yes, I'm in Tamale to conduct qualitative
interviews on our finished agenda and missed opportunities with regards to Ababa Gambia
project and then quality education.

So, I'm here with one doctor who is also a medical doctor to share his experience with me.
So, first of all, I want to know whether you have heard something about Sustainable
Development Goals. What at all do you remember about Sustainable Development Goals?
Yes, so I remember that at a point in time we had Millennium Development Goals.

Yes. And that was meant to be implemented over a certain period of time. I don't remember
the duration, but it was meant to help mitigate challenges and address issues so as to
improve the quality of lives of people across the world.

And then after the implementation phase ended, the United Nations came out with a
second phase which was then the Sustainable Development Goals. And my understanding is
that it was meant to sustain all the achievements that were made during the
implementation of the Millennium Development Goals. And it cuts across a wide range of
areas that affect human life so that it could continue to improve the quality of lives of
people across the world.

So, that's what I... Okay, that's very good. So, meaning you are going to reduce or elevate
poverty. Exactly.

Elevation of poverty. Quality education. Improvement in quality education.

Improve health. Providing quality drinking water. Yes.

And all that. Even quality of air that we breathe is all captured in this Millennium
Development Goals. So, do you foresee Ghana is making effort to achieve these SDGs? Do
you foresee Ghana? Yes.

The observation that I've made in terms of comparison, I've seen that at the time that we
were implementing the Millennium Development Goals, there were a lot more activities
that Ghana implemented towards the achievement of those goals. But the Sustainable
Development Goals phase, I've not seen any deliberate activities by way of government
policies that are geared towards achieving the goals set by the Sustainable Development
Goals as compared to the era of the Millennium Development Goals. So, the Sustainable
Development Goals ending at 2030.

We are in 2024. Do you think it's just that we will achieve all the goals of Sustainable
Development Goals? Because of the lack of activity around it, lack of policy around the
Sustainable Development Goals, I'm not too sure that Ghana will do very well in terms of
implementing the agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals. So, can you say that
Ghana can use the SDGs to achieve economic growth and development? I'm not too sure.
It's not possible. Within the next six years, we are not going to be able to achieve economic
development with the way we are approaching the implementation of the goals put across
by the SDGs. Okay.

And the next case we want to look at is prevalence or extent of government-abandoned

educational projects. From Kwame Nkrumah's time up to now, your ideas about it. How
would you classify an educational project as abandoned? When it is behind five years, it
should have been completed in 2013.

By 2020, it has not been completed. Or when it's even one year over, it's an abandoned
project to you. A project that is being done by government, there's usually a scheduled time
for the completion of those projects.

And mostly as a result of constraints that may not be very well known to us, these projects
stall and sometimes they stay for more than a year. So for me, if I want to define an
abandoned project, I will indicate that if the project's duration is exceeded by more than
one year, then the project is likely abandoned. Okay.

So do you see many or few projects being abandoned in your district? Oh, so many of them
are being abandoned. You can find them in tertiary schools, post-tertiary schools and all
that. And some of the projects are even community-based projects.

They start them and they never complete them. Okay. And then so do you also see many of
such projects in other parts of Ghana? Yes, I do.

If you travel across the country, you will see a lot of these projects that are not completed.
So the abandoned educational projects in your district, what level are they usually above? Is
it the foundation level, the latent level, or what level do you normally see on average?
Usually, for many of the projects that I have seen, before they are abandoned, they would
have gone above the latent level. And some could be roofed, but would be left there.

But many of them would be at above latent level. And then the abandoned projects that we
are talking about, what level of education are they or are more? Is it the primary level, the
secondary level, or the tertiary level? Yes, most of them are in the tertiary institutions. It's
very rare.

If I was going to rank the educational institutions in terms of who suffers more of
abandonment of projects, the tertiary institutions would place first, followed by the second
cycle institutions. Then the basic schools, mostly for those ones, when they started them,
I'm sure because they don't deal with massive structures. So they are able to finish them
most of the time.

So would you say that close to about what percentage of projects are abandoned by each
government? A rough estimate. Successive governments have fallen victims of this
particular practice. And it's going to be very difficult to place a finger on which of them is the
worst culprit.

But what I can say is that it cuts across all regimes. What is the percentage usually? If the
government starts 100 projects before the government fills out, will it be 20% abandoned or
what? If a regime starts projects, I think that they usually will be able to do more than 60%,
and the rest of the 40% will be abandoned. And usually the cycle is that when a regime
starts projects like that, usually what will cause abandonment of these projects is the fact
that they will not have a sustainable source of funding for these projects.

And so the next government that comes places priority onto other projects, and it is usually
politically driven or politically motivated. So that one government starts a project, the next
government comes, and doesn't want to complete it because the credit will go to their
predecessor. And usually they don't want it that way.

So they also go and start their own project from foundation level. And then if the political
cycle goes and they get out of power, the next government who comes doesn't also
continue their projects. And so you have an accumulation of uncompleted projects that
every government will have left behind.

So the next piece we want to look at is major factors that cause abandonment of
government educational projects. What are some of the major factors? Political, then
funding. Usually we don't have sustainable sources of funding for the projects.

And so they get stuck along the way. They want to rely on maybe government of Ghana
revenue, which is overstretched. And so they start and they do not get enough revenue to
complete them.

Then I stated earlier that political parties, usually when they come into power, they don't
want to continue previous government projects for the fear that the credit will be taken by
the predecessor. And so they want to start their own projects, which they end up not also
finishing. What about corruption? Yes, corruption is a serious cause because some of the
quantities and materials that usually go into the construction, they will inflate the prices.

The cost becomes so high and that can affect the funding. So corruption is key. And
sometimes to the award of the contracts.

Corruption can come in there because if the contract is not awarded through proper
procedure and is given to people because of their political affiliation and the contributions
they have made to a particular political party. When they come on, when they take the
projects and they are not doing well with the progress that they are making, the
government in power will find it very difficult to keep them in line to get the work done
because they are quote-unquote party affiliates. And the project was just given to them to
pay off the contributions they made to their parties when they were in opposition.

So you've made mention of two points now. Clientelism and political favoritism. Yes, yes.

Because, oh, they are my clients. Exactly. Oh, they help me in this.

All people of the same party. Exactly. Okay.

What about skills of consultants and contractors? Yes, so the skills of consultants and
contractors is very important and can contribute significantly to projects being abandoned.
And usually, like I stated earlier, in the process of awarding the contracts, if the capacity of
the contractor in terms of resources and in terms of skills do not drive the process, and
other factors such as political affiliation and all that, nepotism and these other factors
influence the decision to award the contract, then the projects are likely to stall. Because
the contractor in the first place does not have the capacity to be able to do the contracts.

So what about opinion leaders and commission members? Do they have a hand in any
abandoned government projects? Opinion leaders and commission members. Yes, they do.
In the sense that if opinion leaders and community members take interest in the projects
and they play their civil role in terms of putting an eagle eye on what the contractors do,
because some of these projects are amenities that are supposed to serve the communities.

So if the people take so much interest in what is being provided for them, the likelihood that
the projects will complete will be very high because of the interest that people have. But
most of the times, you don't see people having that zeal in monitoring what is being
provided for them. They just feel that the projects that are being done is a favour and they
look on without actively contributing to how the project should progress.

So of all these that we've said, if we are asked to take only one major cause of government
education projects and abandonment, what would you choose? Just one. A major, yes. Of all
that we have discussed.

The political interest is a major one. Because that informs the funding and the rest of the
factors that go into it. Because it's the political interest that will lead to awarding the
contract to the wrong person.

It's the political interest that will lead to people abandoning previous government projects
and try to move on to their projects when in fact the funds that are available will be used to
complete existing uncompleted projects. But they go and start new projects from the
foundation level and don't also get them finished. Because they want to score political
points of saying that I also started this and I finished it and so on and so forth.

So I think all the other factors rest on political interest. So who are those major players that
have to be blamed anytime there's abandoned government education projects? We have
the education office, we have the policy centre, we have the government leaders, we have
the consultants. Who are those that have to be blamed? It's the government.

Because it's the government who is a pillar. The government plays a very pivotal role in
determining how all the other factors play into the completion of the projects. If the
government doesn't award a contract to a party crony, if the government doesn't start a
project that doesn't have sustainable sources of funding, if the government does not leave
uncompleted projects and go to start new projects that they can't even complete, all these
projects will see the light of day.

So the political factors drive more. So what about politicians? Do you need to blame them?
The politicians are the drivers of politics. So if politics is a serious factor, it means the
politicians are the cause.
Because they are the people who are into that business of politics. What about opinion
leaders? Yes, so the opinion leaders could play a role. They could have their share of the
blame, but not as compared to the politicians.

Because if the opinion leaders take interest and they push for accountability from the power
that be, they will be forced to make some more progress on some of these projects. Then
projects, resources, logistics or supplies? People who supply items to the projects. No, I
don't see much of the blame coming from those people because they are into business.

If you have the resources, you have the money to buy your building materials, construction
materials and so on and so forth, I'm sure they will be ready to supply. But if they are
supplying, you are not paying them. They will inflate the prices.

Yes, they will inflate the prices to levels that you cannot even pay. And that can also affect
the financing of the projects. And finally, the projects stalling.

So it will affect the outcome to be blamed, right? No, it's a replicate effect. The blame is
more on the people who would engage their supply services. If we give them contracts to
supply goods and services, they do, and they are not paid.

They will not want to. Because a supplier will always want to supply if there is a time for
other supplies. So the next point that we want to look at is to evaluate how the abandoned
government education projects affect progress of achieving quality education.

In terms of teaching delivery, do you think if programs are abandoned, it's going to affect
teaching delivery on the side of teachers? Yes, it can affect the quality of education so much.
Because some of these projects range from libraries to dormitories, accommodation for
staff, lecture halls or classroom blocks, laboratories, and so on and so forth. So if all these
important facilities are started and not completed, then it is going to affect the quality of
education.

If it's accommodation, the teacher is supposed to have a comfortable place that will make
him get that job satisfaction for doing that work. And if the project is not complete and they
have to pay for rent and what have you, most of it is going to affect their morale and they
may not give up their best. Laboratories, if they are not in place, it's going to affect the
quality of practical sessions, and students will not get the best out of the content that we
are supposed to deliver to them.

So learning will be affected on the part of students. Yes. Does it also bring stress to teaching
staff and students? Yes, it does.

Because if practical equipment is supposed to be provided, it is awarded to a contractor and

it takes forever to finish. The students will not have the opportunity to have that facility
available and they may have to put in much more effort into understanding the concepts
that they could have picked up easily if there was a laboratory or a practical room where
they could just go for demonstrations to be done. Then facilities such as libraries, if they are
not available, students will have to exert a lot more energy into seeking learning resources
from other places.
So these ways can affect the quality of education. So does it also affect the health outcomes
of students if projects are abandoned? Yes, it does. It's an indirect effect.

The stress factors that we have just talked about, if the students have to go through little
stress to get to learn, it's going to make them more mentally stable, more mentally active,
more emotionally stable to be able to learn. But when these factors are not in place, for
instance, if a dormitory project or a hostel project is supposed to be constructed for the
accommodation of students and the project stops, what it means is that the students are
going to be living in maybe dilapidated structures that would allow mosquito infestation and
other things to cause their sicknesses. But if projects that were started with the intention to
improve the quality of housing for students and the projects were completed, it means that
the students will not be under the mess of all these harsh conditions, which will improve
their health and their stability of mind to learn.

So, under the quality education goal, when you reach the target, the end of it is going to tell
you that leave me no one behind. Everybody should be in school. Do you think Ghana will
achieve this in six years? It's not possible.

It's not possible. That in the next six years, everybody in Ghana will be educated. It's not
possible.

So, how do you see the quality of education in your district, in your locality? Is it good? Yes, I
can say that in terms of quality, we have the systems of education deteriorating by the day.
The time that we were in school, standards were better. The students were more serious in
terms of their concentration to learn and to build their future.

These days, it's not like that. Students no longer pay much more attention to learning. They
seem to go to school because they are forced to go to school.

Unlike years back when that enthusiasm to learn, to become useful citizens in Ghana, was
the order that derived the interest of students. This time, quality standards are falling very
rapidly. So, can you say that the government forgets this part of it, of the reasons for the
quality standards? Yes, it contributes somehow to it.

Because as the population is growing, we out-populate the little infrastructure that

accommodated fewer number of students in years past. So, if projects are abandoned and
are not complete, accessibility could become an issue. And when people have to struggle to
get access, then they look out for other options in terms of their training.

The likelihood that they give up on education will be very high. But if access is so much
available, infrastructure is available, a lot more students can be admitted, it's going to help
more people to get to school and to get educated. So, what has been your experience about
the actions of community members towards abandoned government projects in their
locality? The reaction of people... I don't see people showing so much interest in these
projects.

Once the government starts and doesn't end it, you don't see any agitation from the people,
no pressure is put on the government to complete the projects. They just allow them to stay
like that. But if community members were on government to ensure that every project that
is started gets completed, it would have helped improve.

What about the third-class, like the DC, MC, the education director, genius, do they make
any effort for the project to be completed? These are the people who are partners in the
crime. They condone the knife with the politicians. They have a common interest.

They like to inflate the prices and take the money away without completing the projects.
And so I don't see them different from the politicians. Can we say that there is a relationship
between the status of educational abandoned projects and the quality of teaching and
learning? There is a direct correlation.

So that if the abandoned projects are getting more, the quality of education will be falling.
What about the fact that this educational abandoned project, how does it affect the
achievement of other SDGs? You know, the educational is good for. The others have a
gender equality.

We have good health. You see, education is central to all other things that we want to
achieve. We need health, food security, poverty, malnutrition, all the other factors that are
supposed to be achieved or that are set as objectives for the SDGs, hinge on education.

Once we get education right, all the other factors are likely to fall in place. Because with
quality education and good educational outcomes, poverty will be dealt with. If poverty is
dealt with, good health can be achieved.

Because if you have resources, you can get good health. Malnutrition will be dealt with
Because if you have education and you have regular, sustained income, you can get good
nutrition. And that can eliminate diseases that are associated with malnutrition.

So for me, I see education to be at the center of all the other factors. And once we get
education right, we get every other thing right. From what you're saying then, it means
abandoned government educational projects is a threat to security and protection.

Yes, it is. Because if government projects are abandoned, educational projects are
abandoned, and that brings about problems of lack of accessibility and all that. People are,
you know, children are likely to abandon education, to get out there.

And they learn to adopt other activities that are injurious to them. Yes, armed robbers and
all that. That can affect the security of states.

What about income to the people, the local people? Yes, so if education, if everybody in
Ghana gets educated, what it will mean is that everyone will know what to do in order to
earn some income. So if people are not well educated, people will not get the opportunity
to get educated because the access to education has become constricted because of a lack
of space to accommodate the students, among others. You know, recently you will notice
that with the little improvement in enrollment that the free SHS brought about, we didn't
have facilities to accommodate the students.
And they had to resort to a track system. And that affected the quality of lesson delivery,
the time, the duration of lesson delivery and all that. And so it means that if we do not have
infrastructure improved and we are continuously abandoning projects that we have started,
it means that we are going to have a lot more people not going to school.

And that can affect their income levels. So to assess the impact of government educational
projects on economic development, so if we abandon a lot of educational projects, how are
you going to affect the economic growth and development of Ghana? Yes, so that wants to
have a direct relationship with economic growth and development of any country, including
Ghana. Because the more educated the people are, the more the well-being of the economy
will become.

Because if income levels are higher among people who are educated and they tend to pay a
lot more taxes to governments, government can earn a lot more to invest in infrastructure
development, improve the economy and all that. Even when people are educated and they
are not having direct government employment, they are able to establish themselves in a
manner that they can run their own business.
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