• A School Is an Economy: Navasco and the Architecture of Sustainable Education Funding

    Author(s):

    Yegandi Imhotep Paul Alagidide1, Dominic Baazand Atiah2, Mercy Babachuweh3


    ipalagidede@ug.edu.gh
    2026-03-07 16:44:12

    7 Downloads 39 Views

    Abstract

    This article asks a forward-looking question: how can education finance be structured so that spending consistently delivers reliable, high-quality learning conditions? Using Navrongo Senior High School (Navasco) as a case study, we examine how funding systems can better align with the practical requirements of teaching and learning. We show that classroom adequacy, infrastructure reliability, and pedagogical renewal must be financed as interconnected priorities. Frameworks shaped by the Millennium Development Goals and only partially adapted under the Sustainable Development Goals have emphasized capital expansion, but the next step is to embed maintenance, uptime, and systematic renewal into the core of financial design. We propose Metanomics as a practical architecture for doing so. It is a resource anchored, rules-based model that treats a school as an operating economy. Audited productive assets and contracted service flows are consolidated into a transparent Resource Basket that anchors a school-issued funding instrument governed by clear convertibility rules. Liquidity is directed to verified constraints—reliable power and connectivity, adequate classrooms, and updated learning materials while mainte nance is prepaid and disbursements tied to service-level performance. A fiduciary trust supported by a decentralised ledger ensures transparency and discipline. The framework scales through clustering and district pooling, extends to universi ties through research receivables, and adapts to basic education via aggregated local assets—offering a replicable model that aligns finance directly with learning outcomes.

    Keywords
    Navasco Metanomics; Resource-Backed Education Finance; Reliability First Infrastructure; School Trust; Decentralised Governance; Ghana Secondary Edu cation.

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