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CPP government will revolutionalise educational sector - Greenstreet

By GNA
CPP CPP government will revolutionalise educational sector - Greenstreet
AUG 23, 2016 LISTEN

By Francis Ameyibor, GNA
Accra, Aug. 22, GNA - A Convention Peoples' Party (CPP) government in 2017 would revolutionalise the education sector through an Accelerated Education Sector Investment Programme (AESIP), Mr Kobina Ivor Greenstreet, the presidential candidate, has said.

Under the AESIP, educational facilities from kindergarten to the tertiary level would be refurbished and expanded to meet the needs of a growing population and modernising society, he said.

Mr Greenstreet, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, explained that for the CPP, education serves a multiple purpose of aiding the individual to better understand society and nature and to acquire the skills needed to earn a decent living while contributing to national development.

He said a CPP government would significantly reduce income taxes for teachers and health personnel in addition to other incentives for those who worked in rural areas and places designated as deprived.

He said through the AESIP, the government would ensure that teachers were paid well and those who needed training would receive them through every available and affordable means, including distance learning.

'We shall use tax incentives for the private sector, especially from financial institutions, to build school infrastructure in particular areas of the country and lease that infrastructure to the state for a specified period, after which they become state property.

'The CPP will improve working conditions of teachers, including timely payment of salaries for new and current teachers and attractive home-ownership packages,' Mr Greenstreet said.

Mr Greenstreet said the CPP would decentralise education administration and give local administrators the authority to deal with problems promptly without waiting for directives from the head office or regional offices.

He said the government would build an educational system that did not only provide academic and life skills but inculcate in the children a high degree of self-esteem, personal responsibility, civic duty, patriotism and community service.

'Secondary schools will become part of basic education and will be made free and boarding schools will be actively promoted as a way of reducing the cost of education and at the same time encouraging Ghanaians from all walks of life to live together and know each other before they enter the world of work.

'This is one of the surest ways of fighting ethnocentrism and creating a common sense of nationhood among our future leaders,' he said.

Mr Greenstreet said a CPP government will make vocational and technical education mostly post-secondary to ensure that those going to vocational and technical schools are adequately prepared academically.

'All vocational and technical schools will be adequately resourced under the AESIP to be introduced by the CPP.

He said a CPP government would enhance governance through quarterly publication of financial and management reports of tertiary institutions and the establishment of more transparent and pro-active mechanism to handle both staff and student grievances.

On science and technology, Mr Greenstreet said the CPP would upgrade science and technology facilities at all educational institutions and complete the Science and Technology Museum which had been under construction for years.

He said the CPP would adequately resource the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research to play a more active role in national development.

Mr Greenstrett said the CPP would also expand and improve the quality of the University of Mines and Technology to attract a bigger share of the international student market while offering first class education to Ghanaians.

Professor Edmund Nminyem Delle, the CPP Chairman, said the state had a binding commitment to use its power to promote high rates of economic growth and development as well as ensuring that the wealth thereof was shared equitable among Ghanaians.

'We aspire to work together with all Ghanaians to create a prosperous, just, safe, caring and united society, where there is adequate food and shelter for all and there are ample opportunities for every Ghanaian to develop their personal and social potential to its fullest.

'We shall instil in our people a culture of discipline and excellence, respect for law and order, compassion towards one another, and the idea that we are one people with a common destiny.

'We believe that unless political power is placed in the hands of the CPP, the search for real and lasting solutions to our political and social economic problems will remain elusive,' Prof Delle said.

He, therefore, called on the electorate to vote for Mr Greenstreet and the party's parliamentary candidates.

GNA

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