The General Secretary of the People’s National Convention Bernard Mornah says Ghana’s educational system has been deliberately designed to fail 60 percent of students because of lack of infrastructure.
Mr. Mornah who made the comment on Multi TV’s current affairs show pm: EXPRESS said successive governments have failed Ghanaians by not providing infrastructure to match the increase in student numbers.
He described as sad the fact that Ghana has made the Junior High School level a terminal point in education, adding that the certificate attained at this level of education cannot earn the holder a job as a cleaner.
According to him, 60 percent of students at the various levels of pre-tertiary education are made to fail deliberately because the limited educational infrastructure simply cannot accommodate them.
“If you allow all of them to pass for instance, if you get a hundred percent success, how are you going to admit them? Where?” he asked.
Quizzed by show host, Nii Arday Clegg if the deliberate attempt to fail 60 percent of students is from the Ghana Education Service (GES), a passionate Bernard Mornah turned the question around and asked “who is GES without government, who is the Ministry of Education?”
He said the lack of infrastructure to accommodate all students means that even in cases where the student does not fail, the lack of access makes him an automatic failure.
He explained that Ghana has about 21,000 basic schools, “ along the line, they are narrowed down to less than 600 SHS, and a less than 50 tertiary institutions. This pyramid form of education emasculates a large chunk of the society out because the upper levels cannot accommodate them”.
The PNC heads to Sunyani this November for its national congress. The congress slated for November 25-27 will be a two in one congress to elect both national executives and a flag bearer to lead the party to the 2012 elections.
The 2008 presidential candidate of the PNC, Dr. Edward Mahama had indicated in 2009 that he would not be contesting the party’s leadership position again for the 2012 elections, but information picked up by Multi TV indicates that he is likely to contest the position again.
Commenting on this development, Mr. Mornah said Dr. Mahama’s posture is not reflective of a dormant politician, but rather, of someone really interested in active politics.
“I sometimes suspect that he is going to be the Obasanjo style, to come out and say I am not going to contest but people have compelled and impressed upon me to go out” he added.
He also hinted that three other persons might come up to contest Dr. Mahama for the party’s presidential candidate position although he would not say who the other contenders would be.
Some 2000 delegates are expected to attend the PNC’s congress with 5 delegates each coming from each of the 230 constituencies together with other national and regional executives of the party.
Filing of nominations opened on September 30 and some aspirants have started picking up forms for various positions including national chairman for which David Nibi and Henry Fachou have already picked up forms.
General Secretary Bernard Mornah who is acting as a returning officer for the congress will also be contesting to retain his seat.
Merger talks between the two Nkrumahist fronts – the CPP and PNC – have stalled even though according to Mr. Mornah, the PNC is willing to go ahead with the merger. He said he was “very hopeful of a united Nkrumahist front possibly under the name Convention Peoples Party. In the event that the merger does not materialize, he said the PNC is looking at increasing its electoral fortunes by annexing 44 seats in Parliament.
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