NPP Gov't is not serious ...

...about the new education reforms "-Mabinga
Koforidua, Oct. 27, GNA-A national executive member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Moses Mabinga has observed that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government was not serious about the new education reforms, which it had introduced.

He said that explained why the programme started with teachers who were supposed to teach the pupils not knowing what they were to teach because syllabus and textbooks were not ready and no orientation had been organized for them.

Mr Mabinga was speaking at the fund raising ceremony of the New Juaben South constituency branch of the NDC in Koforidua last Friday.

He said the government claims that under the new education programme, education of children starts from the kindergarten yet it had not trained sufficient kindergarten teachers and even refused to grant study leave with pay to teachers who opted to specialize in the teaching at that level.

Mr Mabinga said it was only ten teachers, one from each region who had been offered study leave with pay to be trained at the University of Winneba and question the seriousness of those promoting that policy as a national priority.

He said even the technical committee set up by the President on the new educational reforms recommended a three-year Senior High Secondary School(SHSS) education for the country but it was the government white paper, which came out with the four years programmer without the resources to back it up.

Mr. Mabinga said the additional one year was just a waste of resources for parents and the country, adding that a future NDC government would revert to the three years programme.

The Eastern Regional Secretary of the NDC, Mr Anthony Gyampoh observed that, the government was often making "noise" about roads that it had constructed yet for seven years, it could not complete the rehabilitation of the Accra to Kumasi road and some portions of it had been left to deteriorate.

He said Koforidua roads had become so bad that potholes were developing all over the place adding that the once good road from Koforidua to Mamfi, which was left behind by the NDC government had now been left to deteriorate.

Mr Gyampoh said as at December 20, 2000, the drawings, loan facility and everything for the construction of the Adenta-Mamfi road was ready, yet it had taken the NPP government seven years to implement the project and even it had not been completed, yet a lot of noise and propaganda were being made over it.

He said the government policy of property owning democracy, was gradually turning education to become the preserve of the rich. He said though everybody was given the chance to enter high institutions of learning, once the person qualified, the demand for high school fees and deposits was gradually throwing out the wards of the poor from school.

The constituency chairman of the party, Mr Andrew Awuku said the party had been able to reorganize 90 out of the 97 branches in the constituency.

He said the party had been able to re-organize the various groups within the party including the youth and women organizations and won back into its fold people who left the NDC because of differences with other members of the party.

Mr Awuku said the fund raising was organized to enable each member to contribute towards the organization of the party and to move it from the situation where only some few individuals contribute to party funds, a situation which, he said, gave them more voice than others. He said the fund raising programme was also to raise resources to support the marketing of the party's parliamentary candidates. 27 Oct. 07