Govt urged to be flexible in FCUBE implementation

Tamale, Aug. 25, GNA - Participants at a stakeholder consultation on the draft revised Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) in the Northern Region have appealed to the government to be flexible in the implementation of the Free, Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) Programme.

They urged the government to take into consideration the poverty levels of the rural people in the implementation of some of the policies, especially the compulsory wearing of school uniform by pupils in the rural communities.

The participants said: "Uniform does not make children to learn. What matters most is to ensure that the schools are staffed with qualified teachers who are motivated to stay and impact knowledge and skills to the students."

"After all, most of us here used to tie cover cloth on our necks and go to school but we are what we are today". These were contained in a communiqu=E9 issued at the end of a two-day GPRS review workshop for stakeholders and partner organizations to create a platform for a broad-based participatory dialogue among civil society organisations to discuss and make inputs into the draft revised GPRS document.

The communiqu=E9 urged district assemblies to formulate by-laws that would be binding on parents to send all children of school going age to school.

The government should take up the construction and maintenance of feeder roads as a priority to open up rural communities to ensure free movement of goods and people to urban centres.

On the importation of rice and tomato paste, the communiqu=E9 urged the government to discourage the practice to protect local farmers. It also urged the government to speed up the land administration process to make land easily accessible to investors.

The communiqu=E9 urged the government to ensure that credit facilities meant for food crop farmers; women and the physically challenged were channelled through the banks on time while the banks should make concerted efforts to reduce interest rates to encourage borrowing.

It appealed to the government to make resources available to the district assembly sub-structures to enable them to function effectively while taking steps to appoint qualified persons including more women and physically challenged persons to the district assemblies.

The government should build more skills training centres for the physically challenged and women to enable them to contribute more positively to national development.

The government should also ensure that the physically challenged were provided with easy access to public buildings and other infrastructure.

On the Right to Information and Whistle Blowers Bills, the communiqu=E9 urged the government to facilitate the passage of the bills into law as a matter of urgency.