The Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) in a new afrobarometer report has revealed that unemployment and education is the greatest problem that Ghanaian youth want the government to address.

The report, dubbed “Facing Forward: Schooling with Learning in Africa”, asked the Ghanaian government to invest in quality pre-primary education, which is critical to developing non-cognitive foundational skills.

According to the report Job creation is first on Ghanaian youth list of priorities for additional spending to help young people.

The report also said,citizens are willing to pay more taxes to fund programmes for youth development, the findings of the survey showed.

With an allocation of over 6 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Ghana’s spending on education is among the highest in Africa.

In spite of the relatively high levels of investment, experts argue that the sector is not living up to expectations as standards are deemed to have fallen to an all-time low.

Spending on the sector, as happens in other sectors, has been found to be largely for recurrent payments in wages and salaries, instead of for investment in infrastructure, teaching and learning aids.

The state of education in the country, educationists argue, will restrict its ability to transform the economy from middle-income with HIPC infrastructure, low total factor productivity and weak systems, to the status of a developed economy.

Already, employers complain about the poor quality of graduates at all levels of education – with some decidedly giving preference to Ghanaians who have schooled abroad.

A World Bank report warns that millions of young students in low and middle-income countries face the prospect of lost opportunity and lower wages because their primary and secondary schools are failing to educate them to succeed in life.

Paa Kweku Eshun Talksafrica.com