Students need quality education, not "junk" freebies - NUGS

The National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) says students across the country are more interested in educational policies geared towards offering them quality education, rather than the freebies being bandied about by some political parties.

This was contained in a statement released on Thursday by the leadership of the students body.

The New Patriotic Party, the Progressive People’s Party and the Convention People’s Party have all made free education an integral part of their policies if given the nod in the December election.

Nana Akufo-Addo, flagbearer of the NPP has vowed to ensure that within the first term if voted into power, he will make sure that all students who graduate from the Junior High School are able to enter the Senior High Schools.

Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom of the PPP is also in the same league with the NPP flagbearer. He has promised to make education to the tertiary level free if he wins the December polls.

But the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) has described these promises as unrealistic and unachievable. The party says the country needs to expand educational facilities as well as enhance the quality of teaching in the schools before think ing about free education.

But in a statement, NUGS said: “The National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) sees the education of the Ghanaian child as a significant one that is why the Union sees issues such as; how to deliver quality education; provision of jobs for jobless graduates and unemployed non-students; how to rally funds to upgrade facilities and infrastructures in the existing schools [as paramount] and not free education [which is] dominating in the coming General Election.”

NUGS expressed regret at the deteriorated nature of Ghana’s education system saying it is “pathetic that for close to a decade the lives of Ghanaian students have been used for experiment by our national leadership and our politicians seem to be operating on the same tangent”.

The statement said “a tour on our various campuses shows signs of lack. It is not a lack of food but lack of quality tools, equipment and infrastructure that will motivate them to unleash their God-giving potential without which our nation-building agenda would be stunted. Education has become the reserve of the rich instead of the constitutional injunction that ‘education is a right not a privilege’.”

NUGS said many schools across the country continue to record zero percent (0%) in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE); a situation which has created room for charlatans to extort moneys from students in the name of re-sits.

NUGS stressed that “securing the promise of education for the Ghanaian students and youth will be our reason for taking part in this December polls. We must and will vote for a party with good educational policies and not junk”.

The group urged students across the country to vote wisely for the most effective policies because it will define the future of the youth today.