Economist enthused at focus on education for Election 2012

Economic watchers say the emphasis on education by political leaders in Ghana's Election 2012 is healthy for the country's economic transformation.

Education has taken centre-stage in the campaigns by the leading contending political parties, particularly the opposition NPP, ruling NDC and the PPP.

Whilst the NPP and PPP have pledged to make education free from the basic to the Senior High School level, the NDC's policy is to eradicate schools under trees and expand access to education at reduced cost.

Economic lecturer with the Central University College, Deodat Adenutsi, says the drive to develop human resource capacity is critical to economic transformation.

“The politicians are more or less trying to think about some long term solutions to the economic transformation and specifically they are looking at it from essentially the human resource point of view that is why they are talking about quality education, access and well as accumulation of manpower when you talk about education within our economy”, he told Luv Fm.

Mr. Adenutsi however says the focus on access to quality education to develop human resource capacity should be complimented with policies on employment generation, emphasizing that this is the means to achieve practical impact on the economy.

“In as much as they are talking about human capital development, they should also be addressing issues about graduate unemployment, because what is the sense of having the mass army of graduates completing school and they are not contributing to the growth and development process of our country?” he asked.

The economic lecturer expects the manifestoes of the political parties to clearly state how education would lead to employment for economic development.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh/Luv Fm/Ghana