Minister of Education Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum has justified the decision by the government to earmark 20 per cent of the budget to education.

He explained in an interview with Dzifa Bampoh on the First Take on 3FM Thursday, April 22 that education is the single most important tool for the socio-economic development of the country.

To that end, he said, every effort must be made to ensure the people are educated.

The government is spending 20 percent of its budget on education in Ghana, according to figures from the Finance Ministry.

Justifying this figure, Dr Adutwum who is also the lawmaker for Bosomtwe who also worked in the education sector in the United States of America (USA) said “The president is in full support of education transformation, I am swimming downstream all I have to do is to navigate very well bring all stakeholders along get people to understand that the nexus between education and economic transformation should be navigated carefully. Education should not be seen as an end in itself but a means to an end, not just to individuals but for the total transformation of the country.

“I don’t see any challenge greater than what I did in America that is why I welcomed this opportunity by the president to make sure that we can create a robust education system that then can lead to socio-economic transformation.”

Sharing his view on the impact of the virus on education in Ghana, he said “It is tough seeing classrooms empty, I travelled around the country you pass by and the classroom is empty the children are not there. It was a very difficult time for those of us in education.

“The bold initiative by the president allowing the form threes to write exams, the phased approach really gave us the opportunity to learn more about what we needed to do.”