Mills Admits NDC's Failure

The flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Prof. Evans Atta Mills, has made a rare admission that the educational reform undertaken by the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) government was a failure.

“We did not appear to have laid sufficient emphasis on vocational training and this has proved to be a major drawback”, he strongly observed

Addressing a National Consultative Forum on University Education at the Akuafo Hall of the University of Ghana, Legon, last Friday, the former Vice President added that the inability to establish community colleges to absorb students who could not gain admission into the universities after senior secondary school was also a setback.

He however quickly added that “the NDC government has no apologies to make for complying with a constitutional requirement that there must be quality education in all the regions.”

Touching on the GETFUND at the forum, which was organised by the University Students Association of Ghana (USAG), Prof. Evans Atta Mills challenged the Kufuor government to urgently release the fund for the purpose it was established and argued that the “GETFUND should never be a substitute for the budgetary allocation for funding education the country”.

“Our universities can’t wait for five years. I am challenging them, if they release the money they will see the dramatic improvement on our campuses”, the NDC flagbearer opined.

On cost sharing at the tertiary education level, Mills said the NDC would adopt a “philosophy of social democracy” to solve that problem when the party wins the next election.

“With the experiences we have acquired over the years, we must not leave everything to market forces “he maintained.

In his opinion, there are certain responsibilities that every government must take up and funding of tertiary education, which his party strongly believes in, is something that government cannot shirk its responsibility over.

He stressed that those who cannot afford education must be assisted to do so.

According to him, the NDC believes that there is no way that universities students can pay fully for the cost of their education and that “the money which has found its way into wrong pockets must be made available.”

He said Ghana’s biggest problem as far as tertiary education is concerned is funding, and that his party believes education is a right that should not be for the highest bidder.

Ironically, he noted that when the NDC set up the GETFUND in the country, they faced many obstacles from the then opposition NPP.

But “it saddens me that as I stand here, there are arrears contrary to clearly stated rules governing the Fund’s usage.”