Nana Addo's Presidency: A threat to Ghana's Educational Sector!

If governance in any political jurisprudence were to be left in the hands of startling awkward public speakers who are nothing but an irascible grandstander of slippery ideology who had made a career out of flattering and courting the media, Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo, the flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party would have court a name for himself and his admirers.

In my opinion, Nana Addo goofed badly by his conduct and his behavior, which was unbefitting of a prospective president. The unashamed attitude of Nana Addo is a mere veneer beneath ideological crisis and treachery in the NPP, which revered political values under the current dispensation so far us affordable and quality education in all facets of our national development is concern.

For once, I thought the NPP flag bearer should have spared Ghanaians of his shameful tomfoolery, unachievable, flawed and unrealistic free Senior High School policy. Despite Nana Addo's chronological experience in national politics, the inability of him to acknowledge the infeasibility of blurry vision and twisted policies makes me question his intellectual capability and sophistication in grasping the dynamics in educational transformation, especially when the average Ghanaians has the intellectual ability to make a critical assessment of an imaginary Christian and a “devil.”

Perhaps, one could afford the opportunity to pardon the “evangelical” all-die-be die and Yen Akan fo) crusader in the face of Dr Martin Luther Jnr's pronouncement that “nothing in the entire world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

A fool they say will always sing a song, so it was not surprising at all that Nana Addo seized the opportunity at the Institute of Economic Affairs evening encounter to display how hollow and ignorant he is, so far us the educational sector of Ghana's fledging democracy is concern.

The NPP's desperation to cling onto power at all course has rather resulted in nailing their flag bearer in the political coffin for obvious reasons. Though I'm not a lawyer, permit me to quote a section of the 1992 constitution, specifically article 25 (1) “All persons shall have the right to equal educational opportunities and facilities and with a view to achieving the full realization of that right;

a. Basic education shall be free and compulsory and available to all;

b. Secondary education in different forms including vocational and technical education shall be made generally available and accessible to all by every appropriate means, and in particular by the progressive introduction of free education.”

In the wisdom of the framers of the constitution; of which, Nana Addo and his cohorts of nation wreckers boycotted, free SHS is a constitutional obligation for any Ghanaian and should be introduce in a progressive manner. However, to introduce free SHS, basic education must first be made free, available and accessible to all.

The question still remains unanswered by the clueless propagators of free SHS in this current dispensation- Is basic education in Ghana free, accessible and available to all? Have we met the myriad of challenges swallowing basic education in Ghana?

All of us know that basic education in Ghana, since time in memorial has been saddled with nerve and brain racking challenges, and until these challenges are met, any serious, vision oriented and intelligent revolutionaries cannot make empty boast of free SHS just for political reasons.

It would be recalled that in 2007/2008 when Nana Addo, was a senior member of government under former President Kufuor, they failed to provide feeding grants to secondary schools in the three northern regions. As a result, students in the three northern region schools had to stay home for six weeks. Is this the mark of a party committed to making education at the secondary level free?

Obviously, it is clear that it will only take a dodgy flag bearer to spew out such highfalutin policy. In a Ghana News Agency report between May 8 and 11 2008, 147 basic schools in the upper West region had their classes under trees, 274 primary schools, 207 Junior High Schools and 37 Kindergarten institutions attended classes in dilapidated structures whilst 209 primary schools, 15 JHS and 72 Kindergarten attended schools under trees. Has the NPP thought of the number of schools under tress in other regions?

One can deduce from Nana Addo's naïve preposition of free SHS that he wants to create more schools under trees. The current administration is yet to eliminate all the schools under tress. So what will a virus infested Nana Addo government do to curb the upsurge in falling standards of education in the public schools? We can not amuse ourselves of Nana Addo's problem with lexicon. Free SHS means all private SHS in the country will also be free. Mind you, the NPP flag bearer did not say free SHS for public schools. Ghanaians, is the mark of somebody who wants to transform and revolutionalize the educational sector us we are made to believe?

If making mere empty promises to win political power is a pleasure, Nana Addo would one day include it on his curriculum vitae. For he has nothing to offer Ghanaians, but sheer rhetoric of a disparate and power drunk political figure prancing the four corners of the country to seek power for his own good? I pray all the apostles of all-die-be-die to take a critical look at the non availability of classrooms, teachers, books etc at the basic level before thinking of free SHS. For now, the policy as propagated by Nana Addo, whose educational achievement for Abuakwa State College-a Senior High School in his constituency during his 12 years as a Member of Parliament was a donation of a 12 inch colored television to the school. Charity they say begins at home!

Still at my backyard!!!

Amos Blessing Amorse
Youth Activist
0232 69 59 06