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Education system is in crisis-Nduom
Accra, Aug. 25, Ghanadot/GNA- Dr. Paa Kwesi
Nduom, flagbearer of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) on
Monday said that despite the various interventions by the
previous and present government, Ghana’s educational system
still remained a crisis.
He said that discussions with employers revealed that the
quality of people produced by the educational system did not
meet industry standard, and were often retrained on basic
elements that should have been taken care of while in
school.
Dr. Nduom addressing a press conference to react to the
release of the results of this year’s Basic Education
Certificate Examination (BECE) that showed that, out of the
320,000 students who took part in the examination, 50
percent failed the BECE.
“Many of our children cannot read, write or express
themselves well in English or in any one of our local
languages. The same difficulty exists in the area of science
and technology…….The fact of the matter is that our
education system is in crisis”.
“It is clear that something different needs to happen
otherwise, we will continue to slowly but surely create a
huge class of unemployed, undereducated, disenchanted and
potentially destructive young men and women who will also
constitute the majority of the population”.
Dr Nduom said the Constitution demanded Free Compulsory
Basic Education but neither the National Democratic Congress
(NDC) nor the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administrations had
implemented this, saying, “We do not have free and
compulsory education of any type in Ghana”.
“For education to be useful and productive we must have the
right facilities, motivated teachers, healthy children and
attentive parents….This ingredients are not available in our
system today in any consistent manner”.
“I want to implement what our constitution demands- free
compulsory basic education and even go beyond to add
continuous education to senior high school.”
Dr. Nduom thus proposed free, compulsory and continuous
education from Kindergarten to Senior high school, stating,
“Education has proven to be an equalizing factor throughout
the world, and developed countries have used it as a means
of accelerating economic and social growth.
Dr. Nduom said a CPP government led by him would put quality
education high on the agenda to enable the country to meet
the demands of the global economy, adding that his
administration would enforce the compulsory element of
education to ensure that all children get the opportunity to
prepare themselves for what the employment that the CPP
party would create.
He said that public schools throughout the country would be
equipped, through proceeds from the GETfund and other
national revenue, in a standard high quality manner, to
provide the opportunity for all children to reach their
potential.
“The CPP aims to create a just and disciplined society with
a passion for excellence and the ability to move from the
third world with all its social injustices to the first
world with opportunities for every boy and girl.”
Dr Nduom acknowledged the importance of teachers in the
equation and said that the party would assist teachers own
their home, as well as build to ensure that there was enough
houses to accommodate teachers throughout the country.
“Teachers deserve a better life on this earth”, he added
GNA
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