General News of 2012-10-16

Parties Set Agenda For Education

Although education has been put on the front burner in the run up to Election 2012, with the various political parties trumpeting different priorities, the five major political parties have a common ground in the development of infrastructure in the educational sector. The National Democratic Congress (NDC), the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the People’s National Convention (PNC), the Convention People’s Party (CPP) and the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) have all outlined elaborate proposals to improve on educational infrastructure in the country.

These major political parties have tabled ambitious proposals to tackle educational infrastructure from the basic to the tertiary level, with the view to raising the quality and standard of education and preparing the youth for the job market.

Whereas the PNC and the CPP focused their attention on overhauling the infrastructure of technical and vocational training institutions, the PPP is determined to refit educational infrastructure from the kindergarten to the senior high school (SHS) level.

In its proposal to provide quality education for every Ghanaian child, the PPP has tendered an ambitious plan to standardise school facilities from the kindergarten to SHS. The facilities will encompass classrooms, libraries, toilets, kitchens, housing for teachers and playing grounds.

The NDC is making a case for the retention of power with a comprehensive programme to expand SHS infrastructure throughout the country.

Under the programme, 200 community schools, to cost GH¢540 million, are to be built from 2013 to 2016. Each school is expected to cost GH¢2.7 million and accommodate an estimated 1,000 students.

The design will include a two-storey, 12-unit classroom block, a two-storey six-unit science laboratory with a library and a computer room on the ground floor and offices and a staff common room on the first floor.

The rest are a two-storey, eight-unit staff accommodation and one detached bungalow for the headmaster/headmistress.

Additionally, in pursuance of a policy shift towards technical education, the NDC manifesto has proposed the construction of two technical schools in each district, along with a planned rehabilitation and upgrade of all technical schools in the country.

In the case of the NPP, there will be free SHS. Under the policy, which includes free technical and vocational education training, the NPP promises to construct 350 cluster schools to cater for the expansion within the next four years.

While that is in progress, the NPP government will also embark on an aggressive expansion programme to increase the capacities of existing SHSs as part of the strategy to cater for the free SHS programme.

Expatiating on the PPP’s policy on education, its flag bearer, Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, said, “We will invest in the building of complete school compounds across the country, including housing for teachers.”

The PPP policy on education also recognises the need to expand educational facilities in order to meet every child’s demand for access.

“Our educational policy is different from the ‘expanding access’ policy outlined by President John D. Mahama and the ‘free, compulsory SHS education’ proposed by Nana Akufo-Addo,” Dr Nduom pointed out.

The PNC is seeking to undertake massive investment in the provision of educational infrastructure, with emphasis on vocational and technical education because, in the view of the party, vocational and technical education holds the key to national development.

Although the party will not be drawn into making promises on the number of infrastructure it plans to deliver, it is sure of investing heavily in infrastructure, starting from the basic to the tertiary level.

The PNC believes that given the needed support, technical and vocational education will drive the economy of Ghana and become a major source of employment.

“We believe that the essence of education is for one to become an ‘absorbable’ graduate, as our flag bearer puts it,” the Special Aide to the PNC flag bearer, Hassan Ayariga, Akane Adabengba, said.

“The flag bearer, on several occasions, has talked about the need for us to concentrate on technical and vocational education, rather than the humanities and grammar type of education,” he added.

Just like the PNC, the CPP has a keen eye on vocational and technical education, promising to splash 212 new vocational and technical institutions all over the country during the first four years of its rule.

The institutions, to be fashioned along the lines of the Opportunities Industrialisation Centre (OIC) at Shiashie, near Accra, will be used to build the skills of the youth for industrialisation.

In its 2012 manifesto, the CPP seeks to ensure that one vocational and technical school is sited in every district in Ghana to provide free training for students and complement secondary education.

According to the CPP, the vocational and technical schools would admit students who do not or cannot opt for the regular second-cycle schools after the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).

The party proposes to finance the programme through a youth development fund that will be generated from a one per cent additional Value Added Tax (VAT) to bring the total VAT charge to 16 per cent.

Articulating the policy of the NDC on education, the Minister of Education, Mr Lee Ocran, told the Daily Graphic that funding for the project would come from internally generated funds and the donor community

According to him, the NDC would not want to touch the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) for the project because the fund was already overstretched.

At the basic level, he said the next NDC government would continue to remove basic schools under trees, empower teachers to deliver, while students who did not qualify for technical or SHS after JSS would enter vocational institutes.

Mr Ocran, who is also the Chairman of the NDC Manifesto Committee, said the NDC was interested in ensuring equity.

“If subsidy is needed, we will send it to rural schools where the children of farmers and fishermen go to. How many children from the rural areas make it to the big schools? It is only a few; the rest are from the big private basic schools,” he said.

He said even though the boarding school system was still relevant, the reason for putting up those schools was not as pertinent now as it was in the early post-colonial days when only a few schools existed and students had to travel long distances.

Explaining the NPP’s policy on education, a former Minister in the Kufuor administration, Ms Elizabeth Ohene, said with the policy, which would be under an ‘accelerated additions and expansions’ programme, some of the existing SHSs would see some expansion based on their peculiar needs.

For the 350 cluster schools that would be built in the four years, she put the cost at GH¢378,743,750 per year.

Ms Ohene, who is also a member of the NPP Manifesto Team, explained that some existing SHSs would see major expansion and rehabilitation in their libraries, dormitories, classroom blocks, science laboratories, dining halls, among others, depending on their needs, to put them in good stead to take in more students.

For the cost, she put the total amount for the expansion and rehabilitation project per year at GHc215,036,886, starting from 2013 to 2016.

The break down is as follows: classroom blocks, GH¢35,126,250; dormitories, GH¢73,213,111, and rehabilitation and expansion of other infrastructure, GH¢106,697,525.

According to Ms Ohene, another prominent aspect of the free SHS was the TVET, which she said would be made more attractive and with the adequate capacity to provide students with quality learning and practical experience to ensure that they became a greater component of employment generation and technological advancement in the country.

With that, she explained, GHc58,011,973 would be spent yearly for the four years to cater for the expansion of existing TVET. The breakdown is: classroom blocks, GHc9,476, 250; dormitories, GHc19,751,198, and rehabilitation and expansion of other infrastructure, GHc28,784,525.

Another innovative aspect of the free SHS is that the NPP government will provide school buses for the cluster schools which will be purely day schools and sited in areas that will give access to communities that lack SHS.

A similar provision will be made available for TVET students.

The party pledged in its manifesto to spend GHc25,039,999 annually for both SHSs and TVET in the provision of the school buses.

Ms Ohene told the Daily Graphic that the TVET would be given special attention because the NPP wanted to make a great impact and positive difference and that could be done when “the youth get real skills and knowledge that will meet the needs of a transformed economy”.

She noted that the peculiar needs of the various SHSs had been taken into consideration in the scheme of things, so that those challenges would be addressed to expand them for the programme.

She added that some of the existing JHSs would be transformed into SHSs, under the cluster schools programme, for accessibility purposes and gave an assurance that the policy would make room available to cater for areas whose JHSs would be turned to SHSs.

Ms Ohene explained further that the policy would start from September 2013, noting that by September 2014, all children from JHS Three would have to enter either SHS or the TVET.