The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has called on all stakeholders to work together in harnessing data to transform education in the country.
Government Statistician, Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim, called for the modernization of statistical production systems and collaborations to ensure that data becomes the cornerstone of education reform in Ghana.
He said this at the commemoration of the 2024 African Statistics Day held in Accra.
The theme for the celebration was, “Supporting Education by Modernizing The Production of Fit-for-purpose Statistics”.
The African Statistics Day is an event which is commemorated annually on November 18 to deepen public awareness of the significant role statistics play in all aspects of our social and economic life in Africa in particular, and in the entire world in general.
Furthermore, commemoration of the day provides the needed opportunity to increase advocacy for support for major statistical operations, including censuses and surveys, at timely intervals, in order to provide the needed official statistics to inform decision-making at all levels, and monitor socio-economic development policies and programmes.
This year’s celebration highlights the indispensable role of accurate, timely, and accessible data in advancing education and shaping Ghana’s development agenda.
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Speaking at the event, Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim emphasized the need to use statistics for decision making.
“When we look at our educational system, definitely global movement with technology and access to information, our education system over the last years has improved. In the past, we used statistics for only monitoring but when we look at the data inside the education management information system, we can get a lot of insights to help us strategise, as we end the education strategic plan in 2030.
We have to ask ourselves, based on the enrollment that has changed over the period, what will be our target post 2030?” he quizzed.
He continued,”What we have recommended is that if you really want to understand the Ghanaian economy, we should not only look at the surveys and the censuses the GSS have. All the Ministries, departments and agencies have a resource of administrative data which can inform and an example is the private sector data which we can use for disaster response, poverty mapping, vaccination, malaria and even sanitation and so we need to harness data that sit with all the different government agencies and the private sector to compliment surveys and censuses we have at the GSS.”
Again, Professor Annim emphasized that,“By modernizing our statistical production systems and fostering collaborations through initiatives like the Hackathon, we can ensure that data becomes the cornerstone of education reform in Ghana.”
He continued that,“Together, we can create a future where every child has access to quality education supported by evidence-based decisions.”
Meanwhile, Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim said the GSS is collaborating with the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to see how to improve on the quality of data and develop a statistical framework moving forward.
Ghana| Atinkaonline.com| Porcia Oforiwaa Ofori