FOR HIS REALISTIC POLICY STATEMENT; AND QUESTIONS AKUFFO ADDO’S FREE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL POLICY

Members of NDC Atlanta at the just ended monthly meeting have expressed their heartfelt congratulations to the President, H.E. John Dramani Mahama for his insightful and realistic policy statement, and also for accepting the flagbearership at the congress in Kumasi to lead NDC and Ghana to the promise land. NDC Atlanta also congratulates H.E. J.J. Rawlings for gracing the congress and for his continues diagnosis and voicing out of issues which could affect the party’s chances of winning the 2012 elections. All the delegates who attended the congress also need to be commended, and we the Akatamansonians in Atlanta say ayeekooo!!

NDC Atlanta believes that the 2012 electioneering campaign will make more meaning to Ghanaians if it is based on issues and policies. In light of this, the Chapter delved into Akufo Addo’s so called free Senior High School (SHS) policy on education and believes it is a mere political gimmick as it is not hinged on NPP’s philosophy and ideology. Because when NDC was espousing socialist ideologies, NPP was talking about individualism and survival of the fittest; when NDC was championing the idea of being our brothers keeper, NPP was preaching property owning and you are on your ideology.
Surprisingly, their flagbearer has become Father Christmas all of a sudden, wanting to dish out free SHS education to all Junior High School (JHS) graduates. This is very very uncharacteristic of NPP, against the background that, as at the time they were leaving office in 2008, there were 4, 320 schools under trees; they only provided 9% of the school feeding program; and created the need for 672 classrooms as a result of their arbitrary increase in the number of SHS years from 3 to 4. NDC has been able to replace 1,728 of these schools under trees, and there are more schools (2592) under trees to be replaced which the government is working on tirelessly. NDC has increased the school feeding program from the 9% to 26.4%. Furthermore, NDC has built 300 ‘emergency’ classrooms out of the 672. So you see there is more work to be done to improve the quality of even our basic education and NPP is not thinking about this, but how to churn out propaganda, of providing free SHS for electoral votes.

There is a saying that the devil is in the details. So when the numbers (cost) they provided for this policy were being dissected, then we all realized that they don’t add up, exposing this fake free SHS policy. In any case, have they been able to provide;
1. The cost per student per year and the total cost for 4 year SHS education?
2. The number of extra classrooms for the extra students who will enroll into SHS because it is free?
3. Extra teachers who will be needed for the extra students (mind you, student- teacher ratio will increase)?
4. Information on the expansion of the Universities to increase students’ admission since there will be more students to admit because SHS is free?
5. Information on how the massive increase in graduation of SHS will impact the job market?

Is NPP coming up with this policy to address the ignorance and the high illiteracy rate in the country or their free SHS policy will address the unemployment situation among JHS graduates? The policy will not specifically address neither of this. Because over 30% of the Ghanaian population cannot read or write so they cannot attend the free SHS, and most of the SHS graduates who do not further their education are unemployed. Hence their free SHS will not solve ignorance and illiteracy in Ghana, and has nothing to do in comparison with USA Space technology, spearheaded by the Nazist rocket scientist, Dr. Von Braun in going to the moon, as is being preached through their so called ‘dream big’ mantra. It is all about what is practicable, affordable and accessible within the scheme of things in the Ghanaian society and economy. That is why H.E John Dramani Mahama in his policy statement categorized the challenges facing our educational sector into;
I. Falling standards
II. Insufficient stock of high standard facilities for teacher training and inadequate numbers of quality trained teachers
III. Insufficient funding especially at the tertiary levels
IV. Lack of definition and implementation strategies to increase facilities at all levels to correspond to our population growth
NDC as part of its Better Ghana Agenda has a policy of making education accessible to all Ghanaians by 2016, and the hardworking President will surely lead us to achieve this goal. He demonstrated this in his policy statement which was realistic, practicable and doable.

It is the hope of NDC Atlanta that the December elections will be devoid of character assassinations and personal attacks. We implore all Ghanaians to let peace prevail even as H.E. John Dramani Mahama (the Ahobrasiehene) continues to work hard to advance the Better Ghana Agenda in order to better their lives.
NDC! Ed3 bi k3k3!
Emefa mia, mia, mia

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