Education system is a crisis-Nduom

Accra, Aug. 25, GNA- Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, flagbearer of the Convention People's Party (CPP) on Monday said that despite the various interventions by the previous and present government, Ghana's educational system still remained a crisis.

He said that discussions with employers revealed that the quality of people produced by the educational system did not meet industry standard, and were often retrained on basic elements that should have been taken care of while in school.

Dr. Nduom addressing a press conference to react to the release of the results of this year's Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) that showed that, out of the 320,000 students who took part in the examination, 50 percent failed the BECE.

"Many of our children cannot read, write or express themselves well in English or in any one of our local languages. The same difficulty exists in the area of science and technology...The fact of the matter is that our education system is in crisis".

"It is clear that something different needs to happen otherwise, we will continue to slowly but surely create a huge class of unemployed, undereducated, disenchanted and potentially destructive young men and women who will also constitute the majority of the population". Dr Nduom said the Constitution demanded Free Compulsory Basic Education but neither the National Democratic Congress (NDC) nor the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administrations had implemented this, saying, "We do not have free and compulsory education of any type in Ghana". "For education to be useful and productive we must have the right facilities, motivated teachers, healthy children and attentive parents..This ingredients are not available in our system today in any consistent manner".

"I want to implement what our constitution demands- free compulsory basic education and even go beyond to add continuous education to senior high school"

Dr. Nduom thus proposed free, compulsory and continuous education from Kindergarten to Senior high school, stating, "Education has proven to be an equalizing factor throughout the world, and developed countries have used it as a means of accelerating economic and social growth. Dr. Nduom said a CPP government led by him would put quality education high on the agenda to enable the country to meet the demands of the global economy, adding that his administration would enforce the compulsory element of education to ensure that all children get the opportunity to prepare themselves for what the employment that the CPP party would create.

He said that public schools throughout the country would be equipped, through proceeds from the GETfund and other national revenue, in a standard high quality manner, to provide the opportunity for all children to reach their potential.

"The CPP aims to create a just and disciplined society with a passion for excellence and the ability to move from the third world with all its social injustices to the first world with opportunities for every boy and girl"

Dr Nduom acknowledged the importance of teachers in the equation and said that the party would assist teachers own their home, as well as build to ensure that there was enough houses to accommodate teachers throughout the country.

"Teachers deserve a better life on this earth", he added 25 Aug. 08