NDC Grade Propaganda Against Education

We have observed the high decibel campaign being waged against the new direction in education in the country. At first it was against the free SHS, it is continuing, and now the double-track system in selected schools.

That too has come under the sledgehammer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) with such intensity that a stranger, with no knowledge about the subject, could bet government has deliberately embarked upon a project to destroy education in the country.

Until now, we did not know how reckless a desperate political grouping can be in winning hearts for their cause regardless of the obvious negative implications.

Observers have wondered why the NDC would be so vehemently against the double track system even before the implementation of the project.

An initiative which is geared towards addressing the challenge of many pupils who would qualify to proceed to the free SHS across the country should not be bastardised the way the NDC is doing.

Had the so-called infrastructure in SHS' in the country been put in place by the NDC long before now, the shortage of this important feature of schools would not have cropped up. Indeed it is such dearth which has informed the adoption of the double track system.

One of the exciting features of the double track system is the possibility of pupils pursuing SHS education in first class schools; opportunity which would have perhaps eluded them.

With the rising numbers in the number of pupils being churned out by existing JHS' in the country and the accompanying free SHS now operative, a means of absorbing these children requires ingenuity hence the double track system.

Indeed it is not about a re-invention of the wheel but a pragmatic addressing of a problem occasioned by an over-subscription of an educational project. As for challenges associated with novelties, these should be expected. It is for those responsible for the implementation of such projects to respond to the emerging challenges. A picture of hopelessness being painted about education at the SHS level is nothing but the extension of the project to kill the free SHS.

Why should children be denied SHS education just because of dearth of educational infrastructure? To suggest as the NDC is doing that the construction of such amenities should precede the expansion of SHS intake in the country is a display of shallow-mindedness or even sheer mischief.

Education is so vital to the development of a country that any conscious effort at running down such innovations as the free SHS, and now the double track initiative, should be fought by all means available.

No country can develop sufficiently to utilize available resources without an educated citizenry. An illiterate population would be susceptible to such infantile pranks such as NDC used to do to their advantage in the rural areas of the country.

When more and more Ghanaians are educated to a minimum level of SHS, it would be difficult to visit such NDC grade propaganda on them.

For a party which has exploited the vulnerability of the people with little or no education for long, making this, in our view, human right available to all and gratis, constitutes a headache for them. Unfortunately, their war against it, is unproductive. Describe it as noise on the airwaves and you would not be wrong.