EDUCATION is a tool that propels a country’s development. A well-educated populace tends to be more prosperous as they apply their knowledge gained and understanding to industry, research and all fields of human endeavours in more productive and profitable manner.
EXAMPLES of countries that have used education to advance development in their respective countries include the United States of America (USA), Germany, United Kingdom and many other developed countries.
WHILE those countries continue to place high premium on education and continue to invest in the sector to make it even better, the situation in many African countries however, leaves much to be desired. In Ghana, for instance, though education continues to receive the highest chunk of the nation’s budget, ahead of all the other Ministries and despite the many reforms that the sector has received, seemingly, there is still a lot that needs to be done if we want education to be prime, benefiting every Ghanaian child irrespective of which part of the country they came from.
THERE are still many of our rural communities where pupils attend schools under trees/thatches. We still live in an era where children walk many kilometres to get to the nearest school. They get to school tired and worn out. We have schools in towns and villages that do not have common chalk to write on the blackboard, a time when chalk and blackboard have even become extinct in some advanced classrooms.
WHAT meaningful education therefore can a pupil get under such circumstances? Obviously, the results will be one of mass failures. It comes as no surprise that many candidates from such schools who sit for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) perform woefully.
UNFORTUNATELY, there are many children, especially in our rural areas, who are unable to attend school. What is accounting for this is poverty; many families in the rural areas cannot afford to send their children to school because of the cost involved.
THIS is why Today is excited at the government’s announcement that its free Senior High School (SHS) policy will commence September this year. It would be recalled that the free SHS policy featured prominently during the 2012 and 2016 elections.
WITHOUT any equivocation and demur Today can state boldly that the free SHS promise was one of the electoral promises that won the New Patriotic Party (NPP) power in last year’s poll. Now that we have been told when the policy will start, we expect the government to put in place all the necessary structures to ensure a smooth take off.
VERY often we turn to have hitches with some of these policies, particularly at the initial stages. It is therefore our expectation that the free SHS will be free from any initial glitches come September.
THERE is no doubt that the free SHS policy will cushion many poor families. But then the issue of how to ensure that a lot more families send their children to school arises.
THAT brings us to the issue of enforcement of this policy when it takes off. It must be pointed out that the free SHS policy will not achieve its target if after its implementation, we still have many of our children not attending SHS.
IT is in the light of the above that Today recommends to the Akufo-Addo administration to buy into the Progressive People’s Party’s (PPP’s) proposal of an Education Police whose mandate will be to ensure that parents compulsorily send their children to SHS after completing Junior High School. In that sense, we will have many parents ensuring that their children take advantage of this policy.
THE free SHS is good, but Today urges the government to ensure that education at this level will equally be of high quality. Indeed, the free SHS policy will achieve nothing if quality is compromised.
THIS brings to the fore the need to motivate the teacher whose role will be crucial in delivering quality education for our children. A well incentivised teacher is always happy to give off his/her best. The reverse is true. Thus, we urge government to make the conscious effort to better the lot of our teachers.
THAT notwithstanding we have heard some who believe the free SHS is not achievable. To all those who have such mindset Today wants to assure them that there is nothing that we cannot do if we set our minds and are determined to have it done.
THIS is a good policy and we must all support it to make it succeed. For after all the success of this policy will not inure only to one political party but Ghanaians in general.
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