A press statement from the 2008 election campaign committee of the Convention People’s Party says it is the NPP that should apologise to the nation for the abysmal failure of their education policies and administration, and not the CPP as demanded by the NPP.

Read the CPP’s full statement below;

BECE RESULTS AND THE STATE OF EDUCATION IN GHANA – SHAME ON THE AKUFFO-ADDO CAMPAIGN

On August 25th, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom the CPP flag-bearer made the following statement at a press briefing on the 2008 BECE results:

“Our discussions with employers over the country tell us that the quality of people that come out of our educational system is not what they desire and many have to be trained on basic elements that should have been taken care of while they were in school. Many of our children cannot read, write or express themselves well in English or in any one of our local language. The same difficulty exists in the area of science and technology. The fact of the matter is that our education system is in crisis.

The PNDC and its successor NDC brought about and managed the educational reforms that ushered in the Junior Secondary and Senior Secondary School system and abolished the ‘O’ and ‘A’ Level form of education. The NPP administration has rejected the JSS/SSS system and introduced the Junior High School and Senior High School system and added another year of instruction. Ironically, it is during the tenure of these political administrations PNDC/NDC/NPP that the education system has been under severe stress.

Some new policies and programs have been adopted including the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund), school feeding program and the “capitation grant” to pay school fees. Some “Model Schools” are under construction. But it is clear that something different needs to happen otherwise, we will continue to slowly but surely create a huge class of unemployed, undereducated, disenchanted and potentially destructive young men and women who will also constitute the majority of the population.”

Neither the NDC nor the NPP has come out to debate these important observations. In addition, Dr. Nduom said at that press briefing:

“The Constitution of the Republic of Ghana demands Free Compulsory Basic Education (FCUBE). I am sorry to say that neither the NDC nor the NPP administrations have implemented this. We do not have free AND compulsory education of any type in Ghana. For education to be useful and productive, we must have the right facilities, motivated teachers, healthy children and attentive parents. These ingredients are not available in our system today in any consistent manner. We have taken the missionary schools away from the originators and struggled over the course content and oversight responsibilities over those schools.”

Again, neither the NDC nor the NPP have been able to speak against these additional observations.

The shameful approach taken by the surrogate of Mr. Akufo-Addo, Dr. Arthur Kennedy is to pick a quarrel with Dr. Nduom over whether the pass rate was 50% or 62%. The facts are clear. Those claiming a 62% pass rate are including aggregates 25 to 30 to make their point. Dr. Nduom is adamant that aggregate 25 to 30 in today’s education system in Ghana NOT A PASS OF ANY TPYE! He says that such BECE scores prevent children from continuing their education. “Someone should tell me which Senior Secondary Schools in Ghana admit students with aggregate 30?” Indeed students from many public schools in Ghana struggle to get even aggregate 25 scores. If the scores announced represent the best achieved in 10 years, 8 under the NPP administration, then God Save our Children!

It is the NPP that should apologise to the nation for such abysmal failure of their education policies and administration. Dr. Kennedy who just returned to Ghana from the USA should save us from meaningless political rabble rousing he may have learnt from the American Republicans!

Dr. Nduom’s aim at that press briefing was not just to criticize. He offered solutions, including the following:

“I want to implement what our Constitution demands – free and compulsory basic education and even go beyond to add continuous education to Senior High School to it. I will put quality education for all high on my agenda to enable us to meet the demands of the global economy. I will use education, particularly technical-skill-based, to encourage the youth to take their place as disciplined and hard working citizens. I am proposing free, compulsory and continuous education from kindergarten to Senior High School. My administration will enforce the compulsory element to ensure that every child – boy and girl – gets the opportunity to prepare themselves for the good jobs that an administration led by me ‘Edwumawura’ will create – technology, tourism, petrochemicals, financial, etc.

Public schools from the North, to the South, East to West will be equipped in a standard, high quality manner, to provide opportunity for all of our children to reach their fullest potential. We will use a standard design for school compounds - from kindergarten to Senior High School – classroom, toilet facilities, science and computer laboratories, kitchen and dining facilities, playgrounds and sports facilities. These will be built using proceeds from the GETFund and other funds from our national revenue to get the job done. When these schools are built, we will not use shortage of classrooms to deprive our children of a good education.

Sports administration will become better organized at the local, regional and national levels to ensure that our young men and women have a good way of expressing themselves. I am talking sports in general, not just soccer but basketball, athletics, cricket, boxing, swimming, etc. This way they will also gain confidence, discipline and strength that comes from competition. This way, we will also groom prepare our sports men and women well over the years consistently for international competitions.

An important component of our program is that we aim to build houses for teachers throughout the country. This will be accompanied by a facility that will allow teachers to own their own houses through low interest loans made available by government with facilitation by financial institutions. In addition, government will support financial institutions to provide low interest loans for household goods and information technology products to improve their quality of life and bring them into the modern age. Teachers deserve a better life on this earth.”

Dr. Kennedy should learn the history of how the Irish used the “Education Police” and free education to become a technology industry haven. He lived in the United States of America but it appears that positive American values and the quest to educate every child to make their society more competitive did not rub off on him.

Dr. Nduom had this to say in addition:

“I have committed myself to campaigning on presenting ideas and solutions to the problems we face and on what I will do to move Ghana from the Third World to the First World. I hope others in the race will respond to current issues in a similar manner and I welcome the views of my competitors on this important current matter of the very poor BECE results.”

We are still waiting for Mr. Akufo-Addo.

Campaign Committee - Nduom for President 05 – 09– 08