PPP directed to go to High Court over FCUBE

The Supreme Court of Ghana has asked the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) to rather go to the High Court to seek the enforcement of the Free, Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution.

The Supreme Court in May this year threw out the PPP’s application asking the highest court of the land to compel the government to enforce the FCUBE policy.

The court, however, deferred its reasons for dismissing the case.

Giving reasons for quashing the case, the seven-member panel of the Supreme Court led by Justice Julius Ansah declined the jurisdiction for the trial of the case.

Also among the reasons for the ruling which Today has intercepted, the Supreme Court explained that the matter and the relevant provisions relied on by the PPP did not occasion any ambiguity to require an interpretation.

According to the Supreme Court, the enforcement of the provisions that the PPP referred to, belongs to another court, which is the High Court.

Speaking to the National Secretary of the PPP, Kofi Asamoah-Siaw, yesterday via telephone, though he admitted the PPP could not have camouflaged its case to make it appear as if it was a matter for interpretation and go to the Supreme Court, he said, the Supreme Court could have done something about its ruling.

He did not agree on the decision of the Supreme Court asking the PPP to go to the High Court for the enforcement of the FCUBE when it could have done that by itself.

Nonetheless, the PPP national scribe did not say when the party would go to the High Court; he hinted that the party would definitely proceed to the High Court for the enforcement of the FCUBE policy.

“We (PPP) are studying the reasons for the dismissal of our suit and at the appropriate time we will proceed to the High Court,” he said.

It will be recalled that a seven-member panel led by Justice Julius Ansah of the Supreme Court deferred reasons for their decision to throw out the PPP’s FCUBE suit.

The PPP in that suit was seeking an order from the Supreme Court to compel the Mahama-led administration to implement the FCUBE policy which is enshrined in the country’s constitution.

Article 25(1)(a) of the 1992 constitution says: “All persons shall have the right to equal educational opportunities and facilities and with a view to achieving the full realisation of that right—basic education shall be free, compulsory and available to all.”

The PPP subsequently argued that since Ghana returned to constitutional democracy in 1992, successive governments had failed to enforce that constitutional provision.

And by that failure, it maintained that it had resulted in many children roaming the streets instead of being in school.

The leaders of the PPP, including its 2012 flag-bearer Papa Kwesi Nduom, expressed disappointment in that decision of the court.