Statement By The NDC Forum

Statement By The NDC Forum For Setting The Record Straight

On NPP’s False Claims On Education

Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media, this press conference is being organised today by the NDC Forum For Setting The Record Straight, a group made by some of us leaders of the NDC as well as some sympathizers of the party who have taken it upon themselves to systematically set the record straight with regard to a series of falsehoods that are being peddled all over the place by the ruling NPP and its presidential candidate Nana Akufo Addo.

A couple of weeks ago, the NDC organized a press conference at which the party addressed you on the many false claims of the NPP that it has today made healthcare free in Ghana.

This Forum is taking over that mantle and will in the next few weeks engage in a series of systematic rebuttal of many false claims the NPP has been making about virtually all segments of our national life.

Today, we want to set the record straight on NPP’s false claims regarding the educational sector.

Ladies and gentlemen, as you all know by now, the following are the major things the NPP has been trumpeting over the rooftops.

1. Capitation Grant 2. School Feeding Programme 3. Free Bus Service For school Children 4. A New Educational Reform 5. Unprecedented Levels Of enrolment In Schools.

Additionally, the NPP candidate, Nana Akufo Addo is now promising that he will go a step further to make secondary and even tertiary education free in the unlikely event that he wins the forthcoming elections.

Let us now take a critical look at these claims of the NPP and its candidate.

To begin with, the NDC government way back in 1995, in line with the requirements of the 1992 constitution, began the implementation of the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) programme. The very first step taken in this direction was the absorption by the NDC government of textbook fees that hitherto was compulsorily paid by every school child in Ghanaian public schools. This was a massive step but you hardly heard the NDC make any noise about this. Like a full barrel, the NDC was not given to making noises but simply focused on working hard to enhance the well being of the people of Ghana.

Bearing in mind that by the requirements of the 1992 constitution, Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) was to be fully functional at the basic level within ten (10) years after 1995, the visionary NDC government took the critical step to establish the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) with a view to providing a major additional source of funding for education in Ghana. We sadly recall how the NPP, then in opposition, vehemently opposed the establishment of the GETFund, just as it had opposed the VAT and also opposed NDC’s successful piloting of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). Let us not make you more sad by reminding you of the fact that the tradition to which the NPP belongs has also historically opposed every good thing in Ghana- our national independence, the construction of the Akosombo Dam, the building of the Motorway and even the 1992 constitution which incidentally made it compulsory for every Ghanaian child to enjoy Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education by 2005.

Capitation Grant

Ladies and gentlemen, though the 1992 constitution enjoined that FCUBE be fully implemented by the year 2005, education at the basic level under the New Patriotic Party government, three years after that deadline is still not free.

The NPP and its candidate are moving all over the place beating their chests and claiming that they have made education at the basic level FREE.

That claim is completely false. The naked truth is that education at the basic level is not free at all.

The NPP government has introduced a capitation grant of ¢3 Gh cedis per child every academic year. This translates into a figure of 1 cedi every term or 25 pesewas a month- in a nutshell, the much trumpeted capitation every month is 25 pesewas, which cannot buy even one ball of kenkey today.

The question the people of Ghana must ask the NPP is this:

Is the total expenditure incurred by parents on a school child every term, 1 cedi? Is the total expenditure every month on a school child 25 pesewas?

The answer is a big NO!!!

Our investigations have revealed that every school pupil at the basic level fully pays for his or her school uniform. According to the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS 1995), expenditure on school uniform constitutes 17% of household expenditure on education.

Besides, every child entering primary one in the average public school in Accra today has to spend in the region of about 170,000 old Cedis (17 gh cedis) to buy stationery and other materials. This expenditure alone is about six times more than the capitation grant the NPP government has been gloating about.

According to the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS 4) estimates, average expenditure incurred by parents per child in primary school is 122,000 old cedis in the rural areas and between 157,000 and 370,000 old cedis in the urban areas.

A survey by the Ghana Education Service (GES), that expenditure on pupils in primary 1 to 3 averages 123,000 old cedis and that of pupils between primary 4 to 6 averages 126,000. This cost, according to the GES, excludes cost incurred by parents on feeding their children.

Let us now proceed to show a concrete evidence of the situation in one of such average public school in Accra. Here is a copy of the 2008-2009 prospectus of Adedeinkpo ‘1’ Primary school located in James Town.

Besides that hefty expenditure on stationery and other materials, every Ghanaian school child today continues to pay on average an examination fee (levy) of about 10,000 old cedis at the primary level and 15,000 old cedis at the JSS level every term. This translates into 30,000 old cedis and 45,000 old cedis every year. So even these fees paid by parents virtually surpass the much trumpeted capitation grant.

Additionally, it is commonplace to have other extra levies imposed on school pupils today. For example, at the Sakumono school Complex, an average public school in the Tema metropolis, each pupil at the basic level is levied 300,000 old cedis as PTA levies. That alone represents ten times what government spends on capitation grant per pupil.

Ladies and Gentlemen it is crystal clear from the above that the capitation grant which the NPP government has been making so much noise about represents just a fraction of the huge expenditure the average Ghanaian parent makes to educate his school child in a public school today.

Besides, it is a fact that the capitation grant is often never paid on time. In a few instances we have heard of arrears running up to even two terms.

This Forum wishes to urge the people of Ghana that the next time they the NPP candidate Akufo Addo boast that his NPP has made education free at the basic level, they should ask him to please tell the children of Ghana, whose parents are still struggling to pay their fees, the truth.

School Feeding Programme

The NPP today is also creating the impression all over place that ALL children in public basic schools are being fed free under the school feeding programme- a program which incidentally is an initiative of NEPAD and the World Food Program, with heavy funding from foreign donors.

Once again, the NPP has not been telling the truth about the school feeding program.

The following is the truth as borne out by the NPP Government’s own Preliminary Education Sector Performance Report (2007/2008). The report emphatically states that only 9 percent of children in public primary schools are benefiting from the School feeding program.

How 9 percent of children in public primary schools has become ALL children in Ghana can only be explained by the NPP.

When will these lies stop?

Free Bus Ride For School Children

Ladies and gentlemen, whenever you hear the NPP boast about free bus ride for our school children, please understand that this is yet another example of NPP taking us and all children in Ghana for a ride.

Where are the buses?

How many of you here see your brothers, sisters or children join buses free to reach public schools every morning?

Even in cities such as Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi and Sekondi, the buses are virtually non-existent on the roads. The buses are almost as extinct as the dinosaurs and the kangaroos of prehistoric times.

New Educational Reform

In 2007, the NPP government introduced a so called new educational reform programme under which the academic life span in senior secondary schools was increased to four years. A Committee of expert set up by the president, (the Anamuah-Mensah Committee), after thorough deliberations had in a report submitted in 2002, advised against the change. The NPP government, as usual, refused to pay heed to the sound advice of the committee of experts.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media, is it not shocking that one whole academic year after the introduction of this reform, neither the syllabus nor a single textbook was available to the students of this country?

Clearly, the only reform that took place has been the change of name. Is that the priority of the NPP government? Is the change of name more important than the quality of education to be provided to our people?

Yet, amidst all these unfortunate developments, the NPP government is gloating all over and seeking to create the impression it has brought about a wonderful transformation to the educational sector through this reform.

Free Education At The Secondary & Tertiary Level

Ladies and Gentlemen of the media, the NPP government has not even been able to make education free at the basic level. Yet today, its candidate Nana Akufo-Addo is going all over the country promising Ghanaians that he would provide free education at the secondary and even the University level.

The NPP candidate claims that president Kufuor has provided free education at the basic level and he will make the next levels of education free.

When will the NPP stop deceiving the people?

You first have to make the basic level free before making empty boasts about the higher level.

The NPP government in the 2007/2008 academic year failed to provide feeding grant to the public secondary schools in the three northern regions. As a result, students in those three regions had to stay home for six solid weeks.

Is this the mark of a government that is committed to making education free at the secondary level?

Let us look at a few of the following problems confronting the educational sector today.

The Ghana News Agency in its reports of May 8th and 11th this year covering the Upper West region stated the following:

1. 174 Basic schools in the Upper West region have their classes held under trees. 2. 274 Primary schools, 207 junior high schools and 37 kindergarten institutions attend classes in dangerous dilapidated structures 3. 209 primary schools, 15 junior high schools and 72 kindergartens attend school under sheds. 4. there were 1,060 teaching vacancies to be filled in the Upper West region alone. 5. more than one half of the teachers in the region are not trained.

The report also stressed that more than 27,024 school children in the Central region aged between 4-5 years, expected to be in kindergarten, were not in school.

These examples are mainly from one region. Can you imagine the magnitude of the problems nationwide?

These are some of the stark realities confronting the educational sector today. If the NPP government will expend, just a fraction of the energy it is using to boast about its educational accomplishments, on addressing the above mentioned problems the nation’s education would have been much better served.

Besides the claims by the NPP candidate that he will make education free at the secondary and tertiary levels, the NPP has also been trumpeting all over the place that there has been unprecedented levels of enrolment under its tenure.

Our simple response to that is the following: Does the NPP think it has cause to gloat about quantitative increments when every evidence shows that the quality of education in Ghana today is worse than at any other time in recent memory? When, ladies and gentlemen, did you in years gone by hear that about 2 out every 3 students failing the SSS Certificate Examination?

While NPP is boasting about unprecedented levels of enrolment in our schools, the shocking reality is that in the year 2006, an overwhelming 66% of all Senior Secondary School students in Ghana who sat the SSS-CE failed. In 2007 the failure rate again stood at 60%. At the basic level the story is equally sad. Does the NPP care about this? No! They are busy singing triumphant songs of unprecedented levels of education.

We have not even touched on the dire service conditions of the teacher in Ghana today. The NPP is too busy gloating to even listen to the agonising cries of the teachers without whose contribution any success in the educational sector will be a mirage.

Conclusion

Ladies and gentlemen, to conclude, let us take a glance at the level of educational infrastructure the NPP has provided over the last eight years vis a vis what the previous NDC government provided between 1993 and 2000. The aim is to underscore which government showed more commitment to the educational sector.

Let us bear in mind that the NPP has throughout its eight years had access to huge foreign inflows in addition to the GETFund (which we need not remind you, they vehemently opposed).

Description Of school NDC (1993-2000) NPP (2001-2008) Pre-school 6,321 2,362 Primary 12,335 1,013 (GETFund-ed) JSS 6,414 853 (GETFund-ed) SSS 264 19 Science Resource Centres 110 0 Polytechnics 7 0 Public Universities 3 0 **Gleaned from the following sources: Anamua-Mensah cttee report, 2002, Djanmah cttee report, 2002, Ansu Kyereme cttee report 2003, Gbadamoshi report (2000) and the Preliminary Education Sector Performance Report (PESP) 2004 up to 2007/2008. Ladies and gentlemen, the statistics above shows beyond doubt that even though the NDC has not been making lots of noises, it has completely outperformed the NPP in spite of the heavy foreign inflows and the GETFund.

It is time for all the people of Ghana to tell the NPP the following:

Enough is enough with all the lies and deception. Tell the children of Ghana the truth.

Thank you very much and God bless you all for coming.