The President of IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe has stated that government\u2019s free education policy will spread misery to all citizens.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026a government which is interested in spreading misery all across wants to superintend to making sure there is education for all but it is bad education for all,\u201d he asserted.<\/p>\n
The President, John Mahama, in his 2014 State of the Nation address in Parliament announced that his government will from 2015,\u00a0begin implementing a free Senior High School (SHS) policy.<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n [contextly_sidebar id=”lrn1ZDRryfkVNZfhvqHdqjSy9lXlyAMR”]Although the free SHS policy was the main campaign message of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2012 general elections, the party\u2019s two-time flagbearer, Nana Akufo-Addo<\/strong><\/span><\/a> welcomed the President\u2019s resolve to implement the policy.<\/p>\n But teacher unions and stakeholders in the education sector have expressed their reservations about the policy.<\/p>\n The\u00a0National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) has indicated it will reduce the quality of education<\/strong> <\/span><\/a>in the Senior High Schools.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, the Education Ministry has announced the completion of a comprehensive roadmap<\/strong><\/span><\/a> for the implementation of the policy in the 2015 academic year.<\/p>\n But the IMANI boss insists, the policy will have dire consequences on the nation’s educational sector.<\/p>\n Cudjoe also remarked that government\u2019s decision to transform Polytechnics into universities is indicative that the Education Ministry is disinterested in the future of Ghanaian youth.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Ministry of Education that is not interested in the future\u2026whereas the world is moving towards ICT and making technical education more important, we are here trying to upgrade technical institutions into universities so they can do grammar courses and then they can put it in their manifestos,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n This follows government’s introduction of a policy aimed at transforming Polytechnics into technical universities<\/strong><\/span><\/a> beginning 2016.<\/p>\n The transformation is to help the technical universities offer practical programmes which will develop middle-level manpower, to facilitate development.<\/p>\n It is also to train of highly-skilled human resource to drive the nation\u2019s socio-economic development.<\/p>\n The converted polytechnics according to government, will not become \u201ctraditional\u201d universities and neither will they duplicate the courses and programmes which are being offered in the various universities.<\/p>\n The IMANI boss on Citi FM\u2019s<\/strong> news analysis programme, The Big Issue<\/strong> <\/em>described the policy as \u201cmyopic\u201d and \u201cit is not progress.\u201d<\/p>\n He recommended that a critical assessment has to be made on the nation\u2019s education system which is rapidly losing relevance.<\/p>\n Cudjoe admonished the developers of the country\u2019s educational curriculum to keep \u201cpace with the modern trends.\u201d<\/p>\n He pointed out that decentralizing education is \u201cthe most important thing and the GES will say there is already decentralization but it\u2019s not effective.\u201d<\/p>\n He was of the view that although decentralization exists, \u201cit is just decentralization of crime because as you see, National Service Scheme is decentralized but they are stealing so decentralization of crime; theft is what is really is happening not in terms of quality.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By: Efua Idan Osam\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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