Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the 2012 vice presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, has stated that the NPPs pledge of making secondary education free and the associated cost (of some 1% of GDP) is not limited to the senior high schools, adding that come September 2013, technical and vocational schools would all be made free for all students as contained in the NPP’s 2012 manifesto and Nana Akufo-Addo’s IEA encounter.

Dr. Bawumia was speaking in Zabzugu on Monday on the eleventh day of his Northern Regional Tour while on tour of the Zabzugu- Tatale constituency.

Speaking at a mini-rally in the centre of Zabzugu, Dr. Bawumia said “Nana Akufo-Addo keeps talking about the promise to make education free at the secondary school level because it is a promise when fulfilled would lead to a major transformation in our society and it would benefit every household in Ghana. It is Nana Akufo-Addo’s vision that every child should be able to go to school and become relevant to his or family, community and the nation at large. This is why we would make secondary education including senior high school, technical and vocational education free for all come September 2013.

We have said we would do it because it is urgent and those who say we should wait 20 years can rather wait in opposition for 20 years and watch us transform and build a first class society in Ghana”, he added.

It is recalled that during Nana Akufo-Addo’s 2012 IEA encounter, he stated that “Free secondary school education will cover Technical and Vocational institutions.” The NPP, according to Prof Gyan Baffour, a member of the education committee, will commit an annual amount of GH¢63,331,973 on Technical and Vocational Institutions from 2013 to 2016, as part of the costing of the Free SHS policy.

The NPP Vice-Presidential candidate also indicated that integral in the NPPs free secondary school policy was a massive expansion in infrastructure and facilities and asked Ghanaians not to be deceived by the NDCs deliberate twisting of the issues which seeks to ignore the very clear commitment of the NPP to massively improve on facilities and build 350 new schools to accommodate the increase in students.

Dr. Bawumia noted that the increase in infrastructure and facilities would inevitably mean a significant investment in education and also ensure a major boost in the local construction industry which would be relied upon to provide the new facilities and upgrades. He maintained that more significantly, prioritizing education and meeting all the necessary requirements, would ensure the creation of thousands of new jobs in various sectors across the country.

Dr. Bawumia expressed his delight that the vision of providing free Secondary education first espoused by NPP Presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, in 2008, had gained significant acceptance across the length and breadth of the country with almost all other political parties with the exception the ruling NDC accepting that it is a policy which ought to be pursued for the good of Ghana.

The NPP Running Mate was accompanied to the Zabzugu-Tatale constituency by former Vice-President, Alhaji ALiu Mahama, Sheik T B Damba, 2nd Vice-Chairman of the NPP, Rita Asobayere, former National Women’s Organizer of the NPP, Mustapha Hamid, spokesperson to Nana Akufo-Addo, Mohammed Amin Anta, former MCE of the Tamale Metropolis and John Bennam, the Member of Parliament and Parliamentary candidate of the NPP for the constituency.