Education deserves highest priority to meet UN MDGs - Prof. Anamuah-Mensah

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Created on Wednesday, 17 October 2012 00:00

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Education deserves highest priority to meet UN MDGs - Prof. Anamuah-Mensah

Professor Jophus Anamuah-Mensah, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Education Winneba, said although Ghana is at the threshold of achieving the Millennium Development Goal on Education, the 2015 target is only achievable if the sector is given the highest priority.

“The country requires a catalytic approach in pursuing outstanding deficits in attaining Universal Primary Enrolment Retention, Completion, Quality and Gender Parity,” Prof. Anamuah-Mensah noted this in his foreword on the Civil Society Education Manifesto 2012.

{sidebar id=12 align=right}He said the Civil Society recognizes that Ghana has progressively advanced towards meeting the education targets set out in the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals and Education for All goals launched in Dakar 2000.

He cited what he described as the significant successes chalked in increasing access to primary education, which he said has made Ghana one of the few African Countries in a position to meet the education target.

He said the upcoming general elections in December 2012 present an opportunity for constructive debates on the direction of development policies and initiatives, including education in Ghana.

“We (Civil Society) take a proactive role by putting forward this manifesto as a framework that should guide the actions of civil society and those of the next political administration in Ghana for the period 7 January 2013- 6 January 2016.

“The plurality of political opinions on development policies is expected to engage the attention of political parties during the election debates. What has been conspicuously lacking in previous political debates is the civil society dimension to development policies, especially in education.

“The Civil Society Education Manifesto 2012 is a presentation of the view point of the ordinary citizens about how education should be delivered in the next four years to ensure Ghana achieves the MDG targets (and beyond) in education.”

Apart from the necessity of reaching MDG education target, Prof. Anamuah-Mensah said civil society believes that an investment and commitment to education provides the cornerstone of any society that values its citizen's participation in development as well as the centrality of human resource to national development.

“The manifesto is meant to stimulate, engage and empower students, teachers, educators, community members and leaders, civil society organizations and political parties to take a fresh look at the most pressing education policy issues that have received very little attention in the past decade, and take the necessary action.”

From:Isaac Essel/Myjoyonline.com

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Akufo-Addo To Prez Mahama: You're Not The Only One Who Deserves Free Education

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Created on Sunday, 14 October 2012 00:00

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14 October 2012

Akufo-Addo To Prez Mahama: You're Not The Only One Who Deserves Free Education

The 2012 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Akufo-Addo, has sent a strong message to President John Mahama, leader of the National Democratic Congres, to make the matter of educating the Ghanaian populace a priority and stop what he calls "an attempt by he and his party to push education to the background as though it was not an important matter."

{sidebar id=11 align=right}The NPP leader, who is currently in the Brong Ahafo region, on his “hope restoration tour” also wondered why President Mahama, "a man who benefited from free education will be saying today that free education is not possible."

He charged, "if the president has become who he is today because of free education, why must he, today ,be standing in the way of that same policy that will allow all Ghanaian children to also have access to free quality education and become like him in future?"

Nana Addo continued, "Until recently, the NDC kept describing my policy of providing free quality education to all as unrealistic and impossible. Later they shifted their position to saying it can only be possible in twenty years.”

He asked the people whether they could wait till 2032 for education to be made free, to which they all responded with a very loud "no".

The NPP flagbearer maintained that leadership is about choices and he has decided to invest in the future of the youth, adding that "the NDC government is too busy with corruption and making fraudulent payments to themselves and their cronies and that is why they are describing my free education policy as unrealistic."

He said, "if they come to tell you that there is no money to make education free, hoot at them and ask them how they got money to pay all the fraudulent judgement debts, including what they paid to Woyome."

Nana Akufo-Addo made these known when he addressed residents of the Jaman South and North constituencies, Friday and Saturday respectively, as part of his 'hope restoration tour' of the Brong Ahafo region.

Nana Akufo-Addo's tour of both constituencies took him to communities such as Zezera, Mmeremano, Atuna, Doduaso, Drobo, Seketia, Suma, Jamera, Sampa, Duadaso and Goka.

Source: Communications Directorate, NPP/ Ghana

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Why put out 2 batches of SHS students when no opportunities exist for them? Educationist asks

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Created on Tuesday, 16 October 2012 00:00

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Why put out 2 batches of SHS students when no opportunities exist for them, Educationist asks

A former Director General of the Ghana Education Service, Michael Nsowa, is appealing to policy makers to take a second look at the current structure of the nation’s Senior High School system and correct all anomalies before it is too late.

The current system will soon see two batches of final year students sitting the final year examinations. This will surely create problems of capacity of the existing universities to admit them.

{sidebar id=11 align=right} The situation has been triggered by the scrapping of the four-year SHS system, introduced under the erstwhile New Patriotic Party (NPP) government by the current National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, in fulfillment of a campaign promise to the electorate. The NDC government argued there wasn’t enough infrastructure to absorb all students in High Schools and that parents will be over-burdened by fees for the additional year that was added to the previous three-year system.

But that political decision has resulted in a situation where the final batch of the four-year system and the first batch of the three-year system are going to leave school early next year.

Contributing to discussions on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show Tuesday, Mr Nsowa who could not hide his frustrations, lamented: “What happens to these people when they come out? Where are they going to go”?

He noted that parents are very worried about the situation and keep inquiring about what arrangements are in place to absorb the students in the universities or engage these students in profitable ventures once they are out of school.

“Why would we want to send two batches of students into the world of work when there are no opportunities for them?” he queried.

The former Director of Education said there are others in the education sector who share his frustration. For instance, he said the Vice Chancellor of University of Ghana was at one point equally disturbed that out of 31,000 students who had qualified for admission into the school, the university could only admit 17,000. The situation will be compounded if the number of SHS graduates doubles.

On his part, Mr Nsowa thought it isn’t pragmatic to force students out of school when they haven’t even completed the curriculum.

He stressed that the responsibility lies with government to make proper decisions that will make life better for the younger generation.

Therefore, Mr Nsowa proposed: “These are issues we should go back and see whether we did the right thing. If we didn’t, we shouldn’t feel ashamed to [do the right thing]”.

He also called for a national forum to dispassionately debate propositions by the various political parties on how to restructure the whole educational system.

From: Dorcas Efe Menssah/Myjoyonline.com

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Three Northern Regions Will Each Get A University

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Created on Saturday, 13 October 2012 00:00

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13 October 2012

Three Northern Regions Will Each Get A University

{sidebar id=11 align=right}Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has stated that, when elected, the New Patriotic Party would transform the three campuses of the University of Development Studies in the three Northern Regions into autonomous public universities as contained in its 2012 Manifesto.

Speaking in Fumbisi while touring the Builsa South constituency on the 5th day of his tour of the Upper East Region, the NPP’s vice presidential candidate said “with the onset of the free secondary school programme of the NPP, there would be an obvious need for expansion at the Tertiary level to accommodate graduates from the Senior High, Technical and Vocational schools.

In the North at the moment, we have only one Public University, the University of Development studies with three campuses – Wa, Navrongo and Nyankpala.

What the NPP would do as we have said in our manifesto is to convert these three campuses into separate universities so that each of the three Northern Regions can have one Public University. Each of the Campuses of the UDS already have an appreciable level of facilities and what we would do is to build on these existing facilities, expand and improve it to bring them up to the needed standards. Importantly, we would not set up universities only in name as our friends on the other side have done with the Universities they claim to have set up in the Volta and Brong Ahafo regions for propaganda purposes,” he said.

The NPP Vice-Presidential candidate stressed that the NPP was committed to introducing policies and programmes and enhancing existing ones to ensure that the people of Ghana see a marked transformation in their lives. He stressed that, ultimately, everything any government does must be to the benefit of the people of Ghana, and that this would preoccupy the Akufo-Addo government.

“What nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP are promising is to transform this country to see much improved performance in terms of our economy and in terms of our wellbeing because, ultimately, whatever u do in government, the people must feel the benefit of those policies and if you have policies that are not inuring to the benefit of the people and rather increasing the suffering of the people, then those policies cannot be right,” he stated.

Dr. Bawumia mentioned that the NPP would tackle key issues in the area of education, agriculture, infrastructural development and health to better the lives of the people of the North.

He stated that in the area of agriculture for example, the Nana Akufo-Addo government would focus on the development of dams and irrigation facilities to boost agriculture and ensure that farmers in the North can farm throughout the year to make the North the breadbasket of Ghana and the West African region.

He indicated that to further the NPP’s aim to boost agriculture, it would also set up mechanization centres across the North and all parts of the country to make tractors accessible for peasant farmers to reduce the burden of farming.

Source: Communications Directorate, NPP/ Ghana

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