Do not over-politicise the fee-free education policy

Nkawie (Ash), May 15, GNA - Participants at a day's workshop on "The Importance of Girl-Child Education" held at Nkawie in the Atwima-Nwabiagya District of Ashanti last Friday advised politicians not to over-politicise the government's fee-free education policy. They claimed that the over-politicisation of the policy has made some parents, especially those in the rural areas to refuse to provide the basic educational needs of their children.

The workshop, was organized by the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC), was attended by traditional rulers, assembly members, School Management Committees (SMCs), District Girl-Child Education Co-ordinators and other stakeholders selected from six districts in the Ashanti Region.

They were Atwima-Nwabiagya, Afigya-Sekyere, Sekyere West, Kwabre, Sekyere East and Ahafo-Ano South.

The participants observed that residents in some school communities had even refused to contribute to the development of education in the area and failed to provide school uniforms and exercise books for their children.

Mr John Kwadwo Owusu, the Ashanti Regional Co-ordinator of GNECC, regretted that millions of children, especially girls, make their way through life impoverished, abandoned, uneducated and malnourished. To those unfortunate girls, he said, life was a daily struggle to survive.

Mr Owusu, however, said this could be reversed, if adequate recognition and importance was given to the provision of quality education to the child, especially the girl-child.