Ghanaians need to know!
In recent times Prof. Ameyaw-Ekumfi, an educational professional and a
minister for Education during the NPP led administration has stated that the
NPP's educational policy of free Senior High School (SHS) was an approach
taken after it was researched and recommended by some unnamed and faceless
think-tanks. The NDC-USA calls on the NPP to reveal to the world and the
people of Ghana which think-tanks recommended that this would be the best
policy to approach the problems Ghana faces in the educational sector. It is
essential that more information about this is made available, since the free
SHS is emerging as the most ridiculous position a political party has taken
since the late Dan Lartey's position on domestication as a solution for
every problem facing Ghana.
The NDC USA challenges the NPP to 'out' these think-tanks, in order that
these phony institutions can explain to the world and their financiers how
they arrived at this recommendation. The needs of Ghana's educational
sector are many and they are indeed serious, professionals such as Prof. Ameyaw
Ekumfi and these anonymous think-tanks are clearly aware of these
challenges, they are also very well informed of the injury a nation incurs in the
medium to long-term when such problems continue to persist, yet they advised
a major political party to take the tack of promising free SHS as if it is
the panacea to the problems facing Ghana's educational sector. The sad part
of this story is that there are some university professors in Ghana who,
due to political purposes, are on record of supporting this approach and
have shamelessly written to endorse and promote the obvious election gimmick
to win votes rather than solving the hydra headed problems of Ghana’s
education.
What beats our imagination is this, Why should a government pay for food
and lodging for students who have had the fortune of gaining admission to
institutions of learning it already overwhelmingly supports, while it cannot
even provide school buildings for other deserving students? Why? Every year
in Ghana many deserving students who qualify to be in SHS cannot get
admission because there are no schools to accommodate them! Similarly, Ghana's
universities frustrate thousands of students who qualify to be in the
universities by assigning courses to students on a take it or leave it basis.
Presently a huge percentage of elementary schools lack qualified teachers and
in many communities classes are held under the canopy of trees!
Remarkably there are university dons, fake think-tanks and politicians who
think free SHS is Ghana's best step forward! Where is the data to support
this approach and reasoning? Ghana cannot be handed over to Nana Nana Addo
Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his lettered elite who have shown gross
unconscionable approach and demonstrated intellectual bankruptcy at finding proper
solutions for Ghana’s educational system!
It is obvious to us, NDC USA, that the policy of free SHS was only crafted
as a ploy to hoodwink well-meaning Ghanaians and to create the perception
that the NPP has useful ideas which can begin to compete with NDC's
enviable achievements in the educational sector. In less than four years, the NDC
administration with the mantra of Better Ghana Agenda put up one thousand
and seven hundred Elementary Schools, hundreds of senior high schools and
the two universities! This envious record surpasses the total number of
infrastructure provided by the NPP administration in the previous in eight
years! It is therefore clear that when it comes to solving the problems of the
educational system in Ghana, the good people of Ghana know which party is
paying lip service to get elected and which if given the chance again, will
do something concrete about it!
It is indeed sad that the NPP is purposefully peddling falsehood to win
elections! It is also pitiful that well-educated persons like Dr. Bawumia
would mount platforms and pretend that the solution to Ghana’s educational
sector is in the ballyhooing of a senseless and phony free Senior High School
policy. The NDC USA wishes to reiterate its call for the NPP to announce to
the world which think-tanks concluded that the free SHS is the best policy
at this time for Ghana’s educational system! Should the promise of free
Senior High School precede the needs such as infrastructure, human and other
resources, supplies and equipment that common sense tells us are necessary
for effective, proficient and quality education? The posturing so far on
the free education by the NPP demonstrates amply that the NPP’s ideas to
solving our educational sector problems are behind times, senile, political
gimmick and must be rejected.
Signed
Secretary,
Osborne K. Sam,
NDC-USA
