The next Government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) would expand the School Feeding Programme to all public basic schools in rural and peri-urban communities.
The NDC: “Complete the process of eliminating the remaining public schools under trees, and abolish the shift system countrywide; and continue the provision of free school uniforms, free exercise books and free footwear for needy pupils.”
The NDC stated this in its Election 2016 Manifesto, which was made available to the Ghana News Agency (GNA).
The circulation of the manifesto is part of the GNA’s project, “GNA Tracks Election 2016,” which seeks to sensitise the electorate on the various issues raised by political parties, elections management body and other governance institutions.
The project also seeks to ensure gender and social inclusion in national politics and to provide voice for the youth, vulnerable groups, opinion leaders and the broader spectrum of the society, as well as contribute its quota to the achievement of a peaceful poll in December.
Another objective is to create a platform to dissect the manifestoes of all political parties and provide in-depth analysis of each thematic area to the electorate to enable them to make an informed judgment.
The NDC said if re-elected it would review the Capitation Grant; continue to ensure improvement in Special Needs Education; facilitate the acceleration of ICT education by training more teachers in the subject area.
The next NDC government would continue the supply of computers to basic schools and establish ICT laboratories for selected schools; work with the Ghana Education Service to reintroduce civic education into the basic school curricula.
The Party would continue to expand the progressively free SHS programme to cover boarding students with emphasis on needy students; review the Computer Selection for Schools Programme to make it more effective and equitable.
It would renovate and expand the facilities in senior high schools to increase capacity for admitting more qualified JHS graduates; continue to provide facilities for students with learning disability to pursue their educational programmes effectively.
On Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), the NDC said it would implement the 2nd phase of the Skills Development Fund to provide grants to more than 20 private sector businesses to upgrade skills and acquire innovative modern technology to enhance their productivity.
“We will encourage more girls to select TVET as a career option; improve linkage between TVET and industry; increase capacity for technical training, 30 per cent of the new community senior high schools will be fitted with technical workshops and facilities to offer technical and vocational programmes.
The NDC would: “Align vocational training properly under the Ministry of Education to enable better supervision; ensure that the new Technical Universities maintain their core mandate of science and technology training; and continue the implementation of the Ghana TVET Voucher Project to support the training of 25,000 Master Craftpersons and apprentices in productive skills in the Volta, Greater Accra and Northern Regions”.
The next President John Dramani Mahama would accelerate the agenda to make technical and vocational education attractive for young people to acquire employable skills; and rebrand and strengthen TVET so that it becomes attractive to high-performing students.
“We will continue to equip and retool the TVET institutions with requisite facilities; establish 50 Community Centres for Integrated Skills Development and introduce special incentives at the basic and second cycle levels for all pupils…with special needs”.
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