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Ghana is a developing country, has no money to run a ‘Free Educational’ program

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Tue, 1 Jun 2021 Source: Joel Savage

It’s very funny indeed when one comes across Ghanaian newspapers that Nana Akufo-Addo’s legacy is the implementation of free education in Ghana, without evaluation to find out if this ‘Free Education’ program has been successful or a complete failure.

Probably, it seems there are millions of people in Ghana, that actually don’t know what is a ‘Free Education,’ because it baffles me a lot to see a whole generation of people behind something that is not working and above all, developed countries are struggling with.

That free education program some confused Ghanaians are blowing trumpet about is a total flop, therefore, I can't simply understand why people are proud about something that has become a complete failure.

What is Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s greatest legacy in the political history of Ghana? I have no credit based on merits to give to him.

The current Ghanaian president did nothing significant to boast of, yet out of jealousy and hate, he leaves uncompleted projects because they were started by the opposition party, which actually belongs to Ghana, not the NDC.

However, he is very smart and quick to change the names of already built institutions. That’s his legacy.

Ghana is a developing country, therefore, has no money to sponsor a ‘Free Educational program.' The country is not ready or matured for a ‘Free Education’ program.

Even in many developed countries, they still find it hard to run such free educational programs or government-sponsored education, let alone Ghana still crawling like a baby, decades after independence.

For those dreaming about a successful free education in Ghana, how I wish they can answer this question. How do they expect the country's free educational program to be a success if it is under heavy debt?

It is totally impossible and deceiving if Akufo-Addo claims he is running a successful free education program in Ghana.

I will explain, free education policies are misguided in developed countries, as they don’t appear to be free.

They are actually costly to the students and involves a lot of expenditures for the government running those programs.

The NPP government can't give Ghanaians a little peace with so much noise over this free educational program, meanwhile, it is not free because is being funded by the taxpayer's money.

It may be likely that the free educational program was a very good attempt by the NPP government, however, due to financial mismanagement, over debt, and massive corruption, the coffers of Ghana are empty. One of the reasons the program has been a failure.

In the first place, why in the past, the NPP government that has criticized the introduction of taxes, including the VAT in the country, suddenly becomes the only political party in Ghana today to introduce multiple taxes than any government?

Because the coffers of Ghana are empty and Akufo-Addo wants the ill free education system to survive but it won’t because the debt incurred on Ghana is too heavy either to sustain a free educational program or a troubled economy.

Just recently, the president chattered a private plane to France and other European countries, to incur a fresh debt of about 345,000 pounds in 23 hours, which cost the country 2.8 million Ghana cedis.

Is this the kind of serious president that wants to run a free educational program in the country? Wonders shall never end, yet they say we shouldn't talk about it.

Columnist: Joel Savage
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