Free education in Northern Ghana is a sacred cow

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military man 11 years ago

Nonsense!!

After all these years and you think the north should still be riding on the backs of the south?

Even under this current economic hardships being faced by all except the privileged few?

Grow up and be a ma ...
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Nonsense!!

After all these years and you think the north should still be riding on the backs of the south?

Even under this current economic hardships being faced by all except the privileged few?

Grow up and be a man to carry your own load.

The scholarship scheme has outlived its usefulness.

There are as equally poor people in the south as there are in the north in current Ghana.

If you would be frank with yourself, you would realize that the current economic hardships is hitting everyone Ghanaian household.
North, South, East or West... it doesn't matter. Everyone is feeling the pinch with the exception of the corrupt politicians in power and their cohorts.

So don't you think this is a good time to even the playing field?

If this scholarsip scheme is to continue, then every kid in Ghana should have the opportunity to enjoy that privilege no matter which part of the country he or she comes from. The only criteria I will suggest in this case is that the scholarships should be awarded to the students who deserve them. If the kid's grades are poor. then it's not his or her's. Period. And even those who deserve them should prove that they still deserve the scholarship at the end of every semester by maintaining perfect grades.

This issue has been too one-sided for far too long and I think the time has come to make some corrections.
Akan Unite 11 years ago

very soon we the people of Akan land wil use the money frm our land take care of our self then they wil see how they wil get money for free education

very soon we the people of Akan land wil use the money frm our land take care of our self then they wil see how they wil get money for free education
John 11 years ago

Here is the irony. The school feeding programme was introduced during NPP reign to provide food for pupils in deprived or poor parts of Ghana. The number of schools from Ashanti Region alone that are included in the feeding p ...
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Here is the irony. The school feeding programme was introduced during NPP reign to provide food for pupils in deprived or poor parts of Ghana. The number of schools from Ashanti Region alone that are included in the feeding programme exceeds that in ALL the 3 regions of the North. Yet, they (majority of southerners)are happy to say that Northerners are poor people.

Dear write, I wish you'd explain in detail what the free education package for the North is. The phrase 'FREE EDUCATION' makes many innocent southerners think that Northerners pay absolutely nothing.
insight to the bone 11 years ago

the problem with this northern mentality is that thanks to jj they now all have an unquenchable thirst for power but never to serve in a team or accept their fellow countrymen . just look around in Accra and study the majorit ...
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the problem with this northern mentality is that thanks to jj they now all have an unquenchable thirst for power but never to serve in a team or accept their fellow countrymen . just look around in Accra and study the majority of the businesses owned by these northerners and in the majority of the medium and Small sized businesses you notice they only employ their fellow northerners and practically never employ an Akan . Today in Accra the largest religious building in the country will be the mosque being build on our national park at Nima donated by Turkey confirming the Islamic domination of Ghana. Tribalism mixed with chauvinism and despotism from the north has now equaled the hegemony of the ewes . A.C.C.R.A any criminal can roam about so we have them everywhere now . even at the scholarship secretariat hardly ever is an Akan awarded the privilege to go abroad and study now . The Akans are the majority but because most continue to sleep or blindly trust the other tribes these atrocities are taking place . We look at the political strategy of the NDC and see the typical Hannibal wench when he turned the strengths of the mighty Roman army against themselves as they are doing to the Akans . From the south they use part of the Fantis and from the North the Brongs , from behind we have the chariot onslaught of the Gas Ewes Krobos. Yes the political landscape reflects a war which is only meant to destroy the right of self governance of the God's chosen nation of Africa the Akan . For them its a big deal who leads the NPP but we really don't care as our movement grows stronger by the hour as more and more Akans wake up to reality of this dire situation . We did not ask for this war but we will fight it and be victorious as God is with us .
HUZAIFA 11 years ago

I wonder how you live with your family with this kind of hate in you, or may be am wrong,you have no family. Dont you ever get tired of your stupidity and ignorance. You keep on commenting on other people's articles. I challe ...
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I wonder how you live with your family with this kind of hate in you, or may be am wrong,you have no family. Dont you ever get tired of your stupidity and ignorance. You keep on commenting on other people's articles. I challenged you one time on this plat form to write your own article and present the point you always say is the best policy for Ghana, see how popular it is with Ghanaians,if you really believe what you are promoting is the best, i challenge you to write your own article. I know you cant do it because you will have to give us your real name, you cant hide behind "insight to the bone" and spit garbage. I write with my real name because i stand by my opinion, why don't you do the same, bigot.
insight to the bone 11 years ago

is that a name ? toilet carrier like you

is that a name ? toilet carrier like you
military man 11 years ago

The truth hurts.... ain't it?

The truth hurts.... ain't it?
CARDINAL 11 years ago

"The number of schools from Ashanti Region alone that are included in the feeding programme exceeds that in ALL the 3 regions of the North."

John, I am with you about the inequality of the distribution of the free uniform ...
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"The number of schools from Ashanti Region alone that are included in the feeding programme exceeds that in ALL the 3 regions of the North."

John, I am with you about the inequality of the distribution of the free uniform and the school feeding programme but you are wrong about the Ashanti region. I wrote an article a long time ago whereby I had the statistics where Greater Accra, on average which its residents have a better living conditions than any region received 33% of all school uniforms the government provided.

Now I want to see where you have your information or statistics to show that schools in Ashanti region has more feeding programmes that all the three Northern regions.

Let's even assume what you are saying is true, compare the populationof Ashanti region to that of all the three Northern regions. There are more people in Ashanti region than all the three Northern regions so what is wrong if Ashanti region has more feeding program than the three Northern regions?

Ashanti region by all indications contribute more to Ghana economy than any other region if you figure out the diasporians contribution, we don't have free education or SADA for Asantes so what is wrong to at least enjoy our due on the school feeding program?
warren 11 years ago

look at this idiot...continue to hold unto poverty as a badge of honor.

look at this idiot...continue to hold unto poverty as a badge of honor.
Alale 11 years ago

It is only feeding in second cycle boarding students that is catered for by gov't, all other fees are paid by students. So what we have is not free secondary education but a subsidized one. As for the haters, they can go to h ...
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It is only feeding in second cycle boarding students that is catered for by gov't, all other fees are paid by students. So what we have is not free secondary education but a subsidized one. As for the haters, they can go to hell. Tell gov't to provide the north with the same kind of roads and investments accorded the south so that we can be at par before you demand for the abolishing of the so called free education in the north. How many of president Kofour's PSIs went to the north and how many roads did he built up there? The little that is spent on feeding boarding students up north annually(not more than 50 million dollars) is nothing compared to the amount spent on infrastructure in the south which the north can only dream of.

USMAN 11 years ago

You see, if 57years of free secondary education in the north and the north is still poor tells you that general education, as taught at the secondary school in Ghana, is not the panacea to initiate development. It is amazing ...
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You see, if 57years of free secondary education in the north and the north is still poor tells you that general education, as taught at the secondary school in Ghana, is not the panacea to initiate development. It is amazing that after 57years of free education in the north, all the juiciest contracts in the three northern regions are executed and supervised by southern carpenters, masons, electricians and engineers. It tells you that the secondary schools in the north are only used as the breeding grounds for promoting northern elitism. No wonder only a handful of northerners are stinkingly rich whiles the vast majority of them live in abject poverty far below human standards. This is how far our useless university education has brought us.
ANDY-K 11 years ago

As an ardent Nkrumaist, I've a lot to say about the policy of free education in the North which actually started in 1952, unlike what many think.

The CPP's policy was to extend same to the whole country. So by 1966, free ...
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As an ardent Nkrumaist, I've a lot to say about the policy of free education in the North which actually started in 1952, unlike what many think.

The CPP's policy was to extend same to the whole country. So by 1966, free education was extended up to basic school (primary and middle schools) in the south too. In sec. schls, only boarding fee was paid by boarders. Books, etc. were free to all and there was no tuition fee. All that suffered a reversal with the coup of 1966 but a large element of free education remained. When I went to 6th form at Mawuli School in the mid-70s, cos of the school farm, poultry and piggery which contributed a lot to cut feeding cost, we sixth formers even had surplus money from the govt subsidy but the schl devised a means to sit on that, instead of give the money to us. Of course, university was free, barring the student loan, to us all who got the chance to enter in the '70s. I said all this to highlight the point that I don't begrudge the so-called free education in the North. I believe it must rather be enhanced to make sure no single chance failed to go to school, as is happening now.

All the same, I believe it must be drastically reformed from its current state, as it is failing woefully to deliver, and simply creating a narrow bunch of mean, self-seeking elite with no empathy for the underprivileged, just as is the case for the South. It is leaving too many people uneducated in the North. It is not doing much to eradicate poverty, abject superstition and backwardness.

In fact, the reform shall be within the context of a wholesale reform of education in the whole of Ghana which shall compulsorily see all children of school going age in basic school up to JSS, or parents shall be penalised! This, of course, shall be strictly free of any form of charges.

From there, pupils shall compulsorily continue to SSS, vocational schools, and technical schools. This willl mean a great expansion in such schools in order to make day schooling available to most. At this level, boarders shall be means tested to determine so that children of the rich make a contribution towards their feeding. I don't believe in all that freeloading and feeding of children of rich parents, even if they are from the North. Of course, children of southerners, rich and poor, in the North also go to boarding house "free" too.

This is just a brief sketch of what I envisage.

Andy-K
Dr. Owusu 11 years ago

Moses Kofi Yahaya - good view point.

Moses Kofi Yahaya - good view point.
USMAN 11 years ago

95% of all Muslims who observe the annual Hajj pilgrimage are from northern Ghana paying as much as $4000. So the question is are northerners really poor. Also imagine a typical northern man with four wives servicing all of t ...
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95% of all Muslims who observe the annual Hajj pilgrimage are from northern Ghana paying as much as $4000. So the question is are northerners really poor. Also imagine a typical northern man with four wives servicing all of them equally. Where on earth will he get the strength to do any hard work. You see, the northern beggarly mentality was acquired through foreign religious culture. The two predominant religions in the north is Catholicism and Islam. Whilst Islam inspires begging, Catholicism showered a lot freebies like pito and tobacco on their congregation in order to always encourage them to attend church in olden days. So you see, an average northerner is always looking up expecting some freebies from above. This is why after 57years of free education northerners still believe they are poor.
Northerners' Fault 11 years ago

You are a jerk!!

You are a jerk!!
Aaron Abuosi 11 years ago

Great piece!Kudos!!

Great piece!Kudos!!
Akan Unite 11 years ago

after 57 years of free education at the same time 70percent of all high positions in the country are ocupy by northners and ewes yet they can develop their regions, so they want who to do it for them?

after 57 years of free education at the same time 70percent of all high positions in the country are ocupy by northners and ewes yet they can develop their regions, so they want who to do it for them?
ASUMADU EMESEWOELI, HO, VOLTA REGION 11 years ago

NORTHERNERS MUST ACCOUNT FOR
THE NORTH HAS PROVEN THAT THE FREE EDUCATION THEY BENEFIT FROM IS WASTED INVESTMENT. HAD SADA BEEN MANAGED BY ANYBODY FROM THE SOUTH, THEY WOULD HAVE CONCLUDED THAT THEY ARE BEING DISCRIMINATED ...
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NORTHERNERS MUST ACCOUNT FOR
THE NORTH HAS PROVEN THAT THE FREE EDUCATION THEY BENEFIT FROM IS WASTED INVESTMENT. HAD SADA BEEN MANAGED BY ANYBODY FROM THE SOUTH, THEY WOULD HAVE CONCLUDED THAT THEY ARE BEING DISCRIMINATED AGAINST.
WITH SADA AND MAHAMA AS PRESIDENT, THE NORTH HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO SHOWCASE THE STUFF IT IS MADE UP OF. BUT WHAT IS THE BALANCE SHEET? CORRUPTION, INCOMPETENCE, INEPTITUDE, PROPAGANDA, CLUELESSNESS, IMPUNITY AND GROWING POVERTY. THE SIGNS OF THESE FAILURES WE FAILED TO SEE WHEN WE HAD THE INFLUX OF KAYAYEI FROM THE NORTH TO THE SOUTH A FEW YEARS AGO. IT MEANT THAT, EDUCATED NORTHERNERS WERE NOT PUTTING THEIR SKILLS AT THE DISPOSAL OF THE ORDINARY NORTHERNERS. THEY ONLY USE POVERTY OF THE NORTH AS A POLITICAL CASE THEY ARE NEVER COMMITTED TO RESOLVE.
THE WA HOSPITAL HAS BEEN IN NEED OF DOCTORS BUT DOCTORS TRAINED FROM THAT REGION AND OTHERS HAVE refused postings there. Why? Why?
THE NORTH MUST ACCOUNT TO US FOR THE COST OF FREE EDUCATION THEY HAVE ENJOYED ALL THESE YEARS. MAHAMA'S LEADERSHIP IS SO KIND TO POVERTY, UNEMPLOYMENT GENERATION AND LACK OF PROGRESS.LOOK AT ASONGTABA, RLG, MAHAMA'BROTHER, GYEEDA AND ALL THE OTHER TROUBLES GENERATED BY EDUCATED NORTHERNS. GHANA IS IN A DARK ALLEY UNDER THIS NORTHERN ONSLAUGHT. THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER IS THAT, ALL THE SCANDAL MONIES WERE USED TO CAMPAIGN FOR JOHN MAHAMA TO BECOME THE INCOMPETENT PRESIDENT WE SEE TODAY.BET MY WORDS, THE PROSECUTION OF ABUGA PELE AND ASIBIT, AMONG OTHERS IS A SMOKESCREEN.
SO WITH SUCH AN ABYSMAL RECORD, AND YOU DARE US WITH SUCH AN ARTICLE, KNOW THAT YOU ARE ASKING FOR TOO MUCH. A WORD...
Northerners' Fault 11 years ago

This in the south!!!
Read this.

This in the south!!!
Read this.
Kwasi, Western Region 11 years ago

To some extent I agree with the author of this article. However, advocating for blanket free education for all Northerners, irrespective of their wealth, is a tough sell when most poor southern families can't afford to send t ...
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To some extent I agree with the author of this article. However, advocating for blanket free education for all Northerners, irrespective of their wealth, is a tough sell when most poor southern families can't afford to send their children to school. The prevailing logic is that by virtue of being a Northerner President Mahatma's children are entitled to free education when poor southern families are denied free education.

military man 11 years ago

How can you agree with the author when you just made a very logical point which is in direct opposition or contradiction to what the author is advocating for?

It just doesn't make sense.

A piece of advice here, Kwasi.
...
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How can you agree with the author when you just made a very logical point which is in direct opposition or contradiction to what the author is advocating for?

It just doesn't make sense.

A piece of advice here, Kwasi.

Don't be afraid to offend anybody by speaking your mind, especially when what you say is the gospel truth.

I'm also from the western region and my poor parents had to scrounge to pay for my school fees when some rich northern dude had his kids' school fees paid for him on account of this descriminatory way of comparing north and south. The rich guy from the north could afford to have paid for his kid's school fees easily whilst my parents had to borrow to pay for my school fees. A lot of southern parents did that to let their kids get a good education. You just made that point yourself. This blanket approach of the idealogy that every Southerner was or is rich WAS and IS still very wrong assumption. By virtue of being a southerner doesn't make one automatically a rich person.

Fair is only fair when the playing field is evened out for all and sundry.

The northern scholarship idealogy has long served its purpose and it's about time some politician with balls came out to say that to start the bal rolling for a change.
All are chicken shit of politicians afraid to say the truth but go all out when it comes to stealing anything worth stealing from our national coffers.

Stand up for what is right, Kwasi.
Abeeku Mensah 11 years ago

For those who breathe, eat and talk politics all the time, free education is some sacred cow but for people with common sense, a sense of writing old wrongs and or sense of shame free education for the north is never enough f ...
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For those who breathe, eat and talk politics all the time, free education is some sacred cow but for people with common sense, a sense of writing old wrongs and or sense of shame free education for the north is never enough for the damaged tribes in the north for what governments did in policy they could not do verbally. For those who know anything about the effects of racial discrimination and or understand the long standing effects of preferences based on race or tribe as in the case of Ghana there is not enough free education in Ghana that can wipe our shameful history away.
By design, the white minority people in South Africa used apartheid to ensure that the next 100 years in the life of South Africa’s blacks and colored will never get to be at par with South Africa’s white minority. The same is true with the effects of racial discrimination in USA which will take over 200 years to bring black American to par with white America or until such a time the majority race in American is something other than whites.
In Ghana we chose, since independence, to marginalize people of the north. Today we see people in the NDC and or NPP filled with tribal biases still use derogative words to describe Ghanaians from the North. The NDC can hold out the current president as a symbol of what they've done as a party even as the north is still behind development in regions south to the northern region. The NPP holds out a few and also Dr. Bawumia as an epitome of a house Negro doing the work of his puppet masters within the NPP establishment. So while the NPP tout Bawumia for his intellect they can still tell him to wait his turn for the presidency of Ghana as if the presidency of Ghana is some prearranged system of tribal ascension to become a tribal chief. We as a nation, since independence, chose to ignore the north and we cowardly chose to provide free education to atone for our evil deeds built on tribal discrimination. But anyone who knows about education in Ghana knows that it is nothing to write home about but a sham. That is why not 100 percent of the school age children in regions to the south of northern Ghana go to school. It is a fallacy what we call free education.
Tony 11 years ago

"a sense of writing old wrongs and or sense of shame free education for the north is never enough for the damaged tribes in the north for what governments did in policy they could not do verbally."

Gibberish and bad gramma ...
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"a sense of writing old wrongs and or sense of shame free education for the north is never enough for the damaged tribes in the north for what governments did in policy they could not do verbally."

Gibberish and bad grammar.

"a sense of writing old wrongs"?
ANGEL 9 years ago

Well done writer! I wish you'd explain in detail what the free education package for the North is. The phrase 'FREE EDUCATION' makes many innocent southerners think that Northerners pay absolutely nothing.
If southerners ar ...
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Well done writer! I wish you'd explain in detail what the free education package for the North is. The phrase 'FREE EDUCATION' makes many innocent southerners think that Northerners pay absolutely nothing.
If southerners are poor, it is their own making because they should ve taken advantage of the early education of the south, the land in the south is far more fertile than the that of the north and there are so many other advantages there that should not make southerners poor

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Free education in Northern Ghana is a sacred cow

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