According to him, the education of the youth is a “core value” of Danish culture, with the state willing to support the academic exploits of students.

[contextly_sidebar id=”SUibzQizvlhBiWEPnon6c2gUBIa0avZx”]”[Free education] has been like this for many years in Denmark.  I’ve never experienced anything else, it’s free to have education in Denmark. There’s also a support system for people who are studying, so they have support from the state,” he said in an interview with Citi FM‘s Bernard Avle.

“We can always have a discussion on whether we have the right balance, but it is the core value in Denmark and our democracy is built on the old school reforms – they are more than 100 years old – where it was an obligation for people to go to school and it was supported by the state. Funding came from a very high tech level. We tax persons more than 50 percent on average, we have all kinds of taxes which are of course needed when you want to have a big public sector.”

He stated that the importance of education to the development of the country had been firmly established in the Scandinavian nation

As a result, despite his own preference for the taxes to be lowered, the citizens are more than happy to pay the high taxes to ensure that their wards have access to quality educational services.

“Our main focus is on education. We need to educate our population so that they are able to reach out for new opportunities. I have a son who’s 26 years old, and is now working with Microsoft in Copenhagen, but I don’t understand what he’s working on. The next generation will see new opportunities that we cannot even imagine today. What we can do is to educate them so that they can have a chance to reach out for new opportunities,” he said.

“You could find another balance as a liberal, I would like to see it lowered a little bit so we could have a bigger private sector, but that is more of an ideological debate.”

‘Great potential’

Anders Samuelsen praised Ghana’s democratic credentials which he said had earned it respect around the globe, and had positioned the West African country as a great destination for potential investors.

“Ghana is a great example of the potential we see in Africa. [Ghana] is one of the examples people look up to and that’s one of the reasons why our Queen is looking forward to this visit. You have a good story and a good track record and we have the same focus in trying to develop human rights, democracy and respect for law and order, and at the same time, we have a common view on trade as being one of the most important ways to get people out of poverty to middle-class standard and thereby being able to live the life they dream of,” he said.

Ghana’s Free SHS education

In Ghana, very few people in the formal sector pay taxes while the majority of the population in the informal sector are not captured in the tax net.

In spite of this, and the fact that the country largely depends on donor funding to support its budget, the government has implemented a policy to offer free Senior High School education.

The initial stages of the policy, which is to cost the government some Ghc400 million for the first academic year, has been fraught with infrastructural challenges in many schools.

Government has so far not disbursed all the monies needed by the schools to cater for the first year students who are the beginners for the policy’s implementation.

There have been concerns about how the country intends to fund the programme, sustain it and also maintain quality education, considering that the economy largely thrives on importation and services with very little focus on industrialization.

Danish queen’s visit

Citi FM’s reports from Denmark come ahead of the official State Visit of Denmark’s Head of State, Her Majesty the Queen Margrethe II, from November 23 to November 24.

The 3-day press trip to Denmark was organised for four selected Ghanaian journalists, including Citi Breakfast Show host, Bernard Koku Avle.

The press trip will be capped with a press conference with Queen Margrethe II.

The Queen, on her eventual historic visit to Ghana, is expected to be accompanied by a Danish business delegation within three focus sectors, namely food & agriculture, sustainability, maritime, infrastructure and railways.

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By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Higher taxes fund free education – Danish Foreign Minister appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Anders Samuelsen said this in an interview with Citi FM’s Director of News Programming, and Host of the award-winning Citi Breakfast Show, Bernard Avle, and Portia Sonia Adoley Gabor of TV3 in Denmark, ahead of the Danish Queen’s historic visit to Ghana.

[contextly_sidebar id=”IHvMlga7gtgAH3KWickaWHAV29Vuj3iz”]Denmark has earned global repute for its environmentally-friendly policies which have helped it maintain a ‘green’ outlook despite its industrial prowess, something other countries have tried and failed to achieve.

The Danish Minister believes that industrialization, whilst generally making the lives of the citizens better, will also result in more attention being given to the protection of the environment.

Ghana in particular has had challenges addressing environmental issues, with one of the recent fights being waged against illegal miming, which is destroying water bodies and forest reserves.

In the case of the illegal mining fight for instance, the perpetrators, who consider it a survival issue, appear unconcerned, and they are not perturbed about government’s decision to stop them with the excuse of saving the environment and water bodies from destruction.

Whilst admitting that transition to an industrialized nation might initially have challenges, the Danish Minister believes the eventual shift to a middle-class economy as a result, would be hugely beneficial to the population and would ensure that a lot more focus is given to the environment.

“When you get a middle class, you’ll have pressure to have a better environment. As long as people are very poor and only think about survival and getting to their next meal and take care of their kids, that is more important than the environment. When you move your population into being part of the middle class – what we’ve noticed in Denmark is, when we become richer, we become more focused on the environment,” he said.

“You have to lift your people out of poverty, have a well-functioning democracy, and then you’ll see that with education, you’’ lift your people out of poverty into the middle class and that’s what’s going on in Ghana at the moment.”

Free trade key to poverty eradication

Mr. Anders Samuelsen thus emphasized the importance of free trade in the eradication of poverty in developing countries like Ghana.

According to him, great strides have already been made to reduce world poverty in recent years on the back of limited restriction of trade between nations.

“Free trade is very important for small countries like Denmark, but I guess that goes for all countries around the world as well. What we’re seeing is a tremendous move away from a situation where we have 40% of the world’s population living below the level of not being able to support themselves according to the United Nations figures. In 25 years, we’ve been able to bring it down below 10 percent,” Anders Samuelsen said.

“We would not have been able to do this without free trade. We would have to keep focus on creating a situation where people keep getting educated, and that is the way forward. Of course, moving from aid to trade is difficult, but it’s the only way forward.”

The visit by Ghanaian journalists to Denmark

The 3-day press trip to Denmark for the four selected Ghanaian journalists, is in preparation for the visit of the Danish Queen to Ghana, on November 23 – 24, 2017.

The press trip from October 30 to November 2, 2017, comes with a comprehensive program, including a unique opportunity for a press conference with Her Majesty the Queen.

It will also include visits to businesses and cultural locations in Copenhagen and its surroundings.

Background

At the invitation of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Denmark’s Head of State, Her Majesty the Queen, will visit Ghana from 23 – 24 November on an official State Visit.

The State Visit will emphasize and consolidate the long-standing and well-established relations between Ghana and Denmark, while at the same time marking the gradual transition of the relations from aid to trade.

The Queen will be accompanied by a Danish business delegation within three focus sectors, namely food & agriculture, sustainability, maritime, infrastructure and railways.

Ghana and Denmark have enjoyed strong commercial ties over the years, and this visit by the Queen, is expected to strengthen those bonds.

The Danish Queen is expected to attend the opening of the conference and pay visits to several local business and cultural institutions.
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By: Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The letter, left on the kitchen table, lists a series of unbelievable events which are said to have happened while the owners were away.

Before ending with the ominous warning ‘Welcome home. Don’t look under the back deck. (The noises will subside with time).’

The note has gone viral after the homeowner posted a picture of it on social media site Reddit, but it has left many questioning whether it is genuine or not.

Among the ‘events’ the house sitter shares is an unfortunate accident on the trampoline where he ‘bruised his penis’, a warning not to trust the next door neighbour after he came round asking for soap and a bizarre story where he offered to play backgammon with a bird he found in the backgarden.

He goes on to say he has run tests on all the silverware which ‘taste confusing’.

Imgur

Whatever the writer’s motive for penning the note, a sense of humour is certainly present.

He wrote: “Bird came back later and asked for soap. Suspect conspiracy. Will monitor more closely henceforth.”

The homeowner posted the letter on Reddit through their sosomething profile.

They wrote: “I’m sure he was trolling us. He’s the kind of person I trust to watch over my house and my dogs while we’re out of town.

“I talked to him while we were driving home – he didn’t mention the note but it was totally normal. I think he just left it as a joke for us to find.”

If it wasn’t a joke, the homeowner probably needs to look for a new house sitter.

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