Free SHS is not manifesto of UP tradition -Asiedu-Nketiah

The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Johnson Asiedu-Nketiah, says free education is not a manifesto of the United Party (UP) tradition, hence, Ghanaians must reject the free Senior High School (SHS) campaign pledge of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).

According to him, a free SHS system was not an antidote to Ghana’s education problems, and that stakeholders must rather ensure access to education, especially, at the basic level.

Mr. Asiedu-Nketiah was addressing NDC activists and sympathisers in the Elembelle constituency during the launch of the 2012 campaign of the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Mr. Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, at Kikam.

The General Secretary said what the NDC seeks to do is to train more teachers, because there are more than 50,000 schools without teachers.

A Deputy Minister of Information, Mr. Samuel Okudjato Ablakwa, said the NPP had no message that was why they had centered their campaign on free SHS to woo the electorate.

He said as part of the NDC government’s avowed commitment to education, a third university was being considered in the Eastern Region, after building two universities recently in the Volta and Brong-Ahafo regions.

Mr. Ablakwa asked the NPP to “concentrate on other sectors of the economy, because Ghana is not only about secondary education.”

He said 10 training colleges would be built soon, and that one would be in the Western Region to deal with the shortage of teachers.

The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Ellembelle, Mr. Daniel K. Eshun, said the Assembly had sponsored 150 teachers to the teacher training colleges, and registered about 300 remedial students to write the November/December examinations, out of which about 50 percent of them passed in Mathematics, English and Science.

Mr. Buah pledged his support for quality education delivery in a bid to push the development agenda of the area forward, and maintained that he would retain the seat

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