The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has
rubbished claims by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) that it has
significantly transformed the country’s education sector.According to
NPP, “Even though the Mahama administration continues to sing about how much
they have transformed the education sector, the NDC as a party has failed to
support its claims of achievements with concrete evidence.
The NPP said
this in a statement issued by its 2016 Campaign Policy Advisor, Boakye
Agyarko.
“The NPP believes that there is much more to be done in
transforming the education sector than the lies and mere rhetoric the NDC
government continues to feed to Ghanaians.”
It made specific reference to
the inability of Okudzeto Ablakwa, Deputy Minister of Education in-charge of
Tertiary Education to provide concrete evidence when pressed for more
information about the NDC manifesto claim that 100 million exercise books had
been distributed by the Mahama government since 2013.”
“Ablakwa promised
to furnish the public with more information about this policy’s implementation
the next morning,” according to the statement.
It said, “This information
was supposed to have shown that indeed 100 million exercise books were supplied
and that in 2015 alone, 58 million books were given to Ghana’s
children.”
The NPP noted that “three days on, no information has been
released. How difficult is it to present details of a policy that has been
actually implemented to Ghanaians? Unless of course, this was a lie in the first
place and cannot be substantiated.”
At its press conference held on
Monday, September 19 this year, the main opposition party pointed out that
textbooks had been abandoned by the Mahama government.
This was in spite
of the NDC manifesto claim that “12.5 million English, Mathematics and Science
textbooks were distributed to public basic schools between 2013 and
2015.
This, according to government, enabled Ghana to exceed the
universal textbook-pupil ratio of three textbooks to one
pupil.
Textbooks decrease
But the NPP said
contrary to government’s claims of exceeding the universal textbook-pupil ratio,
the delivery of textbooks to schools in the country is on the
decline.
According to the party, “A further enquiry into the Education
Sector Performance of 2016 report published by the Ministry of Education showed
that the ‘Core Textbook to pupil ratio’ in public basic schools both at the
National and Deprived District levels have been on the decline since
2013/14.”
It said, “At the national level, it fell from 2.2 in 2013/14 to
2.0 in 2014/15 and to 1.7 in 2015/16. At the Deprived District level, the
figures for the corresponding years are 2.1, 1.8 and 1.6
respectively.
Comparing the NPP’s performance to the NDC in the delivery
of textbooks to schools, the party indicated that “textbooks at basic level were
delivered to public basic schools in the first term of 2005/06 academic
year.”
It added that “approximately 90% were delivered by end of year,
and each pupils/student had textbooks for all subjects.”
“The NPP is
proud to be the first government since independence to have achieved this feat,”
the statement said.
Appeals
The NPP therefore
appealed “to Ghanaians to be discerning in distinguishing real achievements in
the education sector from phantom achievements of the NDC government couched in
flowery language.
“This election is about the future of Ghana. This
election is about the future of Ghana’s children. This election is about voting
for a party that can provide the competent leadership to turn the education
sector around and secure a future of well-educated, confident young people who
will lead Ghana to an even more prosperous future,” it added. |
