NDC Govt Has Provided Unprecedented Access To Education - Prez Mahama

President John Dramani Mahama said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Government had provided unprecedented access to education for the last four years and that many parts of the country have had their equal share.

He said the government had provided almost 1,700 schools to eliminate schools under trees, built dormitories, science laboratories, administrative blocks and fence walls of many schools across the country to ensure access to quality education.

“It is for this reason that we believe that we must provide conducive classrooms at the basic school level and relieve the burden of parents in the provision of exercise and text books, school uniforms, and increase capitation grant so that parents will not have to suffer to keep their wards in school,” he said.

The President said this in an address read for him by Mr Moses Bukari Mabengba, Northern Regional Minister, during the 50th anniversary celebration of the Evangelical Presbyterian College of Education at Bimbilla in the Nanumba North District at the weekend.

The college was established in 1962 by the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Ghana and converted into a mixed school in 1975. It has since 2007/2008 academic year been offering Diploma in Basic Education.

President Mahama said the government did not believe it had solved all the problems in the educational sector but had paid a better remuneration desired by teachers.

He said an impressive motion had been set and if sustained, desired results would be achieved in the near future.

President Mahama challenged the E.P College to seek the best from the trainees so that upon completion, they would serve as good model teachers who would be prepared to serve in remote and deprived communities since the rural areas deserves quality education.

Mr Abdulai Abu Wemah, Principal of the Bimbilla E.P College, said the college was one of the 15 colleges selected to train teachers in Science and Mathematics with 80 percent of the students offering Science, Mathematics and ICT.

He said enrolment figures of the school stood at 790 full-time while the non-professional Teacher’s Diploma in Basic Education had a total enrolment of 1,162 and 363 for the two-year Sandwich Top-up programme.

Mr Wemah mentioned inadequate accommodation, lack of potable water, limited staff development opportunities as some of the challenges facing the school and called on government to assist them.

Right Reverend Francis Amenu, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Ghana, said the production of quality teachers demanded putting in place an educational programme that was excellent, well structured, principled, and holistic and built on lasting core values.

He said educational programmes could only be said to be qualitative when it inspired empirical growth and development and enhanced the dignity of life of the citizenry.