Qualitative Senior High School Education Policy (A)

In Numbers (4th Book of Moses) Chapter 13, the Lord directed Moses to send men to spy out the Land of Canaan, and find out whether those who inhabited the land were strong, weak, few or many, whether the cities they inhabited were like camps or strongholds and whether the land was rich or poor. They returned and gave their report to Moses. They indeed acknowledged the fact that the land was flowing with milk and honey. “Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there.

“Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, ”Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.” But the men who had gone up with him said, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.

“There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” In the above extract from the Holy Bible, we learn that eleven out of the twelve spies sent out by Moses gave a gloomy report of the Israelites inability to take the land from the original inhabitants of the land. Caleb was the only one amongst the lot who gave hope to the people to go out and fight for the land. He did not allow the stature of the giants to frighten him and the people. He exhorted the people to go out and fight for the land as every man of vision would have done under the circumstances.

A man of purpose and vision remains undaunted and unruffled in the face of obstacles that confront him in pursuance of his avowed goals. Such a person has the conviction that nothing is insurmountable and even if such a person across a solid rock/mountain in his chosen path, he/she will go round it with the hope that there might be a tunnel somewhere. The Holy Bible also encourages us with the exhortation that “All things are possible to them that believe”. Nana Addo’s Free Senior High School Education Policy: This is the most radical and revolutionary campaign policy ever made by any charismatic and pragmatic politician since the return to party politics after the overthrow of Ghana’s First President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah. The mantra of free education is gathering momentum and come September, 2013, all other things being equal, parents would no longer mortgage their cocoa farms and other properties to get money to send their children to Senior High Schools.

A little digression: A little over two years ago, I visited my holy village. In a chat with one of my uncles, he made a certain revelation. He said his daughter had gained admission to Senior High School and had been asked to cough out nearly Four Hundred Ghana Cedis. Where was he going to get that kind of money? He asked no one in particular. “As God would have it, my daughter got pregnant” and that gave him a leeway to escape responsibility for the daughter’s education. Divine intervention, one might say, which is similar to former President Mills’ death which opened a door of opportunity to John Dramani Mahama to become unelected President of Ghana and which according to Anita de Souza, NDC Women’s Organizer, if former President Mills had not died as at the time he died, it would have dimmed the chances of the NDC from winning power in the December, 2012 General Elections.

The Best id Right here: This year’s Election is unlike previous ones. The best is right here with the NPP’s Campaign Policy to implement Free and Qualitative Education at Senior Secondary School Level. The mantra of Free Education is gathering momentum and everywhere one goes, the message is simple and clear. “We want Free Education”.

The Nefarious Destructive Cancer is acting as kill-joy: This visionless bunch of nation wreckers led by notorious Yaw Boateng Gyan does not have any message for Ghanaians. In their hurried attempts to cover their deficiencies, they have forgotten one most cardinal principle in life, which states that “if you can’t beat them, you join them”. But no, not these vampires and looters of our collective till! They would rather put land mines and spooks on the progressive forward march journey of their political opponents. They are acting like the spies sent out by Moses to go and spy the land of Canaan. The matter was resolved when God came in and sided with Caleb. Nana Addo here is playing the role of Caleb and as it was in the beginning, so will it be at the end. The Nefarious Destructive Cancer, going by the real sense of the name nefarious is acting its real name. The party is telling Ghanaians that Nana’s Free Education for Senior High School Students is a ruse which is calculated to hoodwink the public into believing in the genuineness of the policy. When that failed to sink in, they resorted to the incongruous verdict that it is not feasible. Who made them a judge over Ghanaians? They should leave Ghanaians to make their own verdict. They are behaving like the six blind men who went to see an elephant. Each touched a different part of the elephant and presumed that was how an elephant looked like. The NDC can live in their own reverie think in whatever manner that they like; it is their own cup of tea. Since they are not the originator of the novel policy, they cannot fathom the ideas, the energy and the depth of knowledge that went into formulating that lofty policy. Why they were drinking tea ‘mpampa’ and engaged in other fraudulent deals with most of them building and buying properties at home and abroad, (with the President buying state property with a building on it and a private jet for his brother), the New Patriotic Party was spending sleepless nights brainstorming on how to bring the country from the doldrums that the Mahamah-Amissah’s government (after the duo have ‘dispatched’ the former President to the land beyond) plunged the country into.

The NDC has continued to shift goal post from its original pIace: Their propaganda of non feasibility of the policy has also fallen flat like a pack of cards. What do they do again? They are now saying we have to put some infrastructure in place before implementing it. President John Mahama and the NDC were stubbornly opposed to the policy simply because it originated from their stable of their political enemy. He was forced to make a one hundred and eighty degree turn around after one pupil in Tamale had told him to the face that he wants free education. Now the President says it is possible but we will have to wait for ten more years. His Minister of Education sang a discordant tune from his boss when he said it can only be implemented in twenty years time. The absurdity in their thinking process: in fact, these people in the NDC are behaving like sheep being led to the slaughter, and I am shocked beyond imagination that no sane person in their midst has come out to debunk their illogical arguments they are putting forth. The Education Minister could be the most educated person in the country, but his reasoning faculty and that of the President puts them as people who are in dire need of exorcism. The Minister talks of twenty years and the President says we should give them ten years time. Are these people serious at all with what they are saying? Between ten and twenty years from now, do they know what the population of the country would have almost become and the cost implementation of the policy? What about cost of living? We cannot postpone to tomorrow what we can do for our country and youth today. It is now or never. The fact that they cannot see beyond their noses and so are bereft of ideas on modalities to go about the policy does not mean that others cannot do it. The New Patriotic Party has the men and women to do it. The Party is therefore asking Ghanaians to give them another opportunity to score an A+ in their lives.

On infrastructural development, is the NDC telling Ghanaians that for the Eighteen or so the PNDC/NDC was in power, they put up such facilities in schools only for the NPP to come out with a bulldozer to pull down those buildings? Our Founding Fathers were visionary in outlook: Yes, they had a vision to transform the country and attain the commanding heights of the economy. The kinds of social interventions the Kufuor led NPP administration put in place would have made this possible if the party had not been voted out of power. Listing some of such laudable policies, I believe would go a long way to re-awaken the conscience of many Ghanaians.

Free Compulsory Basic Education The School Feeding Programme which has led to increase in the number of pupils in Basic Schools.

The National Health Insurance Scheme whose passage was boycotted by NDC Members of Parliament.

Free Maternal Care for Pregnant Women which was condemned by Akua Sena Dansoah, a one time NDC Minister of Women’s Affairs as being responsible for the high rate of teenage pregnancy.

Introduction of Capitation Grant which increased enrolment in both Basic and the Senior High Schools but is now in limbo due to non payment to affected schools. The National Youth Employment Scheme which has been bastardized and politicized by incumbent NDC Government.

The Bui Dam Project, which when completed would go a long way into solving Ghana’s Energy problems.

The Computerized School Selection Placement System (CSSPS) has made it possible for children from poor background to gain admission into high profile schools and those of their choices.

The Establishment of Metro Mass Transit System has helped to reduce transport cost to the barest minimum.

The discovery of Oil which will usher in an era where importation of the commodity will be drastically reduced and also bring in a lot of revenue. Millennium Challenge Account: It must be emphasized that it was as a result of Good Governance Policy introduced by the Kufuor-led NPP administration that led to Ghana becoming a beneficiary of such gargantuan amount of money which has been translated into completion of development projects, courtesy of the United States Government.

Debt Forgiveness: Because the Kufuor led NPP Administration embarked on pragmatic economic and social interventions, our Foreign Partners, mostly the Western Nations wrote off most of the country’s debts. Once again Kufuor’s good governance was at play

Highly Indebted Poor Countries: Yes, Kufuor took Ghana in and out of the group. A lot of good things accrued to the country. The NDC as a party criticized the policy but were quick to ask for the goodies to be extended to them. What do you call such people? Ingrates and visionless! The HIPC Intervention is one of the best thought of programme ever to be embarked upon by an African purposeful leader in both the twentieth and twenty first centuries.

The above are genuine and pragmatic social interventions put in place by an NPP-led administration to change the lot of Ghanaians for the better. Has it ever struck you to ask yourself whether the initiators of these lofty policies were created separately from the rest of us and why it is only in the NPP that you could find such personalities?

Those people had no one to lookup to before they came up with the above social interventions. Yet, they succeeded. Therefore if they come around to tell us they will implement Free Secondary School Education, why should you disbelieve them?

Once a winner, always a winner: Once a loser, always a loser: Yes, The NPP as a political Party chalked an A+ during its Eight Years in office. Can somebody point out one social intervention the NDC has come out with during its second coming to office? Nobody can, because they do not exist. Governance is a continuous process so if One Government constructs some few kilometers of road, it should not take pride in it; Governments all over the world do that. No big deal in that. Is it the so-called free uniform for pupils? Please, discard the notion for not every child is given one. The Modus operanda is to take a few school uniforms, about fifty or so to a school. They are kept in an office. When the Head teacher finds out that a pupil’s uniform is in tatters, he calls such pupils to his office and gives him one.

The so-called NDC free uniform for pupils is similar to the NPP free bus ride for pupils on Metro busses. They cancel each other.

It must be borne in mind that the NDC has all along joined the reactionary elements in the society to plunge the country into darkness. They said the party would give us The Brave New World, but they have ended up by giving us the State of Nature where life is very short, nasty and brutish. Even with concrete evidence before them, they choose to live in their day dreams.

Daniel Danquah Damptey (Damptey_daniel@yahoo.com) 0243715297