SPEECH ON EDUCATIONAL PRIORITIES OF THE NEXT NPP GOVERNMENT DELIVERED BY DR ARTHUR KENNEDY AT NUGS EDUCATIONAL FORUM AT THE GREAT HALL, UNIVERSITY OF GHANA, ON SATURDAY, 19TH JULY, 2008

Mr NUGS President, candidates and other representatives of the various parties, ladies and gentlemen, students, I bring you greetings from the NPP Presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. He is currently visiting the three northern regions and called this morning to ask me to express to you his absolute commitment to education. He wishes you to know that nothing else will come before education in importance during his administration.

The NPP congratulates NUGS for organising this forum. It will help the voters make up their minds about which party and which candidate to vote for.

Mr President, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen; the speeches we have heard here have been very similar. Everybody is promising everything. The question is “Which candidate and which party can you trust to deliver on these promises? “ The CPP claimed to have delivered on education before and they are right. They gave us education without the freedom to question things after improving our minds. The NDC promises to deliver all the things they could not deliver in 19 years and the NPP pledges to build on the successes it has chalked in the last seven years.

Here is the NPP record: At the primary level, we have introduced the School Feeding Program and the Capitation grant, as well as massive rehabilitation of schools, together with the provision of tables and chairs to free children from carrying furniture to school everyday. To complement this, we have reformed the educational system, increased teachers’ salaries and brought distance education that has given hundreds of teachers additional opportunities to further their education. The result has been a thirty percent increase in primary school enrolment from 3.6 million to 4.9 million in the last seven years. Of the new pupils, half have come from the three northern regions and another half from the 9 to 13 year-group who would be otherwise lost to our educational system.

At the second cycle level, we have embarked on an ambitious program of building model schools in all districts and upgrading the quality of our training institutions.

Our tertiary institutions have seen levels of investments in infrastructure not seen since the days of the Nkrumah regime. Furthermore, the remuneration of lecturers has been increased. As a result, there has been an explosion in enrolment at the tertiary level. Our University enrolment, over the last seven years, has increased from about 40 thousand to over 88 thousand annually. Our Polytechnics have increased enrolment from about 18 thousand to 28 thousand.

While these are significant achievements, our work is not yet done. Too many of our children still study under trees and we must put them in proper schools. Too many of our pupils at the Junior Secondary School level fail and we must stop that. Across the board, there are too many students per teacher and we must improve that ratio. Despite the promising reforms in our education introduced by the current NPP government, too many of our teachers feel detached from our educational system. Also, across the board, despite the difficulty students face in getting admission to our Universities, too many of our graduates are unemployed.

While acknowledging these problems and the work that needs to be done, I have no hesitation in declaring, as a former student leader and a parent that the current NPP government has been perhaps the most pro-education government in our history.

We know that elections are about the future and you are the future. The next NPP government under Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo promises to accelerate the progress we are making in education.

First, we shall extend the School Program to cover all pupils in all schools at an estimated cost of 288 million Ghana cedis per year.

Second, we shall make Senior High School Education Free at an additional cost to government of 75 million Ghana cedis per year.

Third, we shall put the teacher at the centre of our educational system by increasing remuneration, providing accommodation for rural teachers, paying a rural allowance, increasing resources for in-service training, distance education and study leave.

Fourth, we pledge to strengthen teacher training Colleges with resources to improve the quality of our teachers with emphasis on science and technology teachers.

Fifth, we commit to the provision of a public University for each region that has none. This will be done with seed money of approximately 25 million Ghana cedis per new University.

Sixth, we shall, in partnership with private business and the Universities, construct Research and Technology parks attached to our Universities that will help convert our Universities into “Business Incubation Centres” that will provide entrepreneurial and employment opportunities for many of our graduates.

Seventh, we shall commit resources to fund attachment of students to businesses and industries to help them to acquire work skills.

Eighth, we shall provide scholarships and other incentives to encourage more of our students to pursue careers in science, technology and research.

Ninth, we shall improve student-teacher ratios at all levels by funding the training of additional teachers and lecturers. At the University level, as an interim measure, we shall provide the necessary resources to make it possible for Ghanaians teaching in places like Harvard and Oxford Universities to teach classes at all of our Universities through video and teleconferencing. Furthermore, we shall work to expand opportunities for Ghanaian Professors with foreign Universities to take their sabbaticals here at home with our Universities. These measures will significantly improve the quality of our education and promote collaboration of our students and staff with other institutions all around the world. Ninth, since productivity is linked to life-long learning, we shall provide tax credits for workers to continue upgrading their skills even while they work. Such upgrading and the learning of new skills will give Ghanaians, opportunities to benefit from oil and other new industries, such as petrochemicals and aluminium that we plan to develop.

Mr NUGS President, distinguished guests and students, our educational system must be tied to the production of good well-paying jobs. That is why the next NPP government is pledged to the creation, together with private enterprise of about 1.2 million jobs annually by the end of its second year in office. These would be in agro-processing, construction, petrochemicals, aluminium, salt services and tourism. This will be made possible by the 1 billion USD Industrial Development Fund, the 1 billion USD Northern Development Fund and Authority and the Youth Enterprise Fund.

I know there are questions about how we can pay for all these initiatives. Well, here is how.

First, we have demonstrated our ability, due to our superb management of the economy, to borrow on the international markets. As some here can attest to, when we tried to raise 750 million USD on the bond market, it was over-subscribed to the tune of 3.2 billion USD. We can therefore raise money that way.

Second, Ghanaians in the Diaspora have sent home money in the region of 4 billion USD per year in the last few years. We shall issue a Ghana Diaspora Bond to raise money from Ghanaians abroad.

Third, we expect to receive nearly 15 billion USD from oil in the first five years. This is not counting the nearly 10 billion we shall not have to spend on oil imports. We believe if managed with prudence, strict accountability, equity and regard for future generations, the oil resources, together with others mentioned here will assist us significantly in meeting the obligations outlined here.

Finally, ladies and gentlemen, since all parties are promising most of the same things, this all comes down to credibility. The NDC/PNDC had twenty years to deliver on education and they did not. Indeed, they believed most of the changes we have brought in the last seven years were impossible. According to the esteemed and authoritative “Daily Graphic” of Monday, October 9th, while addressing a rally to launch the NDC campaign, Prof. J.E.A. Mills, the then Vice President and NDC Presidential candidate “ urged party supporters to be wary of politicians who promise them free education and health since it is not possible.”

If Prof Mills and the NDC thought that it was impossible to have free education in 2000, why do they think it is possible now?

I urge you the youth, to stay engaged in our political process by registering when the register is opened and voting in your numbers, this December, for your future and for progress. The future belongs to you.

We have come too far over the last seven years to go back. Therefore, let us keep moving forward. Let us support the NPP to finish the good work we have started.

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has pledged to be the education President. Let us support him and the NPP.

Let us move forward!

Yenko yanim!

God bless you!

God bless Ghana!

Thank you