Opinions of Thursday, 6 May 2021

Columnist: Ruth Dela Seddoh

Give the Ghanaian child the education you will give your children

Ruth Dela Seddoh is a Deputy National Youth Organizer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Ruth Dela Seddoh is a Deputy National Youth Organizer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC)

On Tuesday, 6th April 2020, Ghanaians woke up to yet another chapter of bungled school re-openings, the second of such postponement in a matter of a few weeks.

This postponement affects year 3 students who are just about to sit for their final examinations; Wassce.

The Ghana Education Service statement announcing the postponement was released on the same day of reopening and attributed it to their consideration of proposals from the Conference of Heads of Assisted Schools, with the express aim of providing uninterrupted teaching for final year students ahead of the WASSCE examinations.

The statement also assured us of the resolution of infrastructural challenges before the new re-opening date of 5th May, 2020.

The long-suffering Ghanaians have, in one show of incompetence been dealt with, yet another blow the Covid-19-induced downturn in our economic circumstances, and the recent brutal and insensitive increases in taxes per the 2021 budget.

Our population is being traumatised all over again, by the state whose duty it is to protect its citizens and their well-being.
The GES statement and apology are smacks of insincerity and disregard in equal measure.

We insist that the Authorities do the right thing and stop this never-ending cycle of pain, anxiety and depression both parents and their wards are being subjected to.

It is an open secret that the biggest causal factor in this saga is infrastructural deficit.

This situation will not change until this government embarks on an aggressive infrastructural development for our schools like the John Mahama led administration did.

To paraphrase the Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, this is the eighth (8th) time since 2017 inception of the free SHS policy, that the school calendar has been obstructed.

Ghanaians deserve better than this. When we pay our taxes, it becomes our right to demand for better standards of living.
When authorities bungle their duties, it is completely unacceptable that they show insincerity and disrespect to the very citizens who employ them.

I therefore call on government to fix this precarious educational system and provide our children with the kind of education they can be comfortable to offer their own children with.