4 RESOLVE TO USE EDUCATION TO BREAK CYCLE OF POVERTY (PAGE 14)

The four major political parties have reiterated their resolve to use quality education to break the cycle of poverty in the country.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP), the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the People’s National Convention (PNC) and the Convention People’s Party (CPP) made their positions known during a debate on education held in Accra.
However, the four parties differed on the methods and the source for funding education.
Ms Elizabeth Ohene, a Minister of State, who represented the NPP said the computer placement of students into Senior High School was one single effort of the government to ensure that students, irrespective of their background got admissions based on merit.
She explained that the move had helped to eradicate corruption and cronyism in the educational sector, and that children from poor families were being admitted to some of the ‘’fanciful’’ schools in the country.
She said the teacher had been made the fulcrum of the educational reforms by the NPP government.
She said through distance education many teachers who would have left the classroom for further education rather used the distance learning to upgrade themselves.
She said the country produced around 9,000 teachers annually, with 18,000 teachers applying each year for study leave but with the introduction of the distance learning the pressure had reduced considerably.
Ms Ohene said the NPP was not against the use of the GetFund to support research and the upgrading of teachers in private universities, which she described as intellectual property.
She, however, said that the NPP would not support any move to use the Getfund to build structures on land acquired by proprietors of private universities since that could raise some legal issues in the future.
She also added that students from private universities had been allowed by the government to access student loans from the funds made available by the Getfund.
Mr Mohammed Atik, PNC spokesperson on education, for his part said the PNC would build non-residential facilities such as libraries and science laboratories to enable students, especially at the tertiary level to stay in their localities but still have access to good facilities to pursue their education.
This was because the present boarding system had become so expensive that the government could not afford it at the expense of the majority who failed to get admissions into tertiary institutions.
Mr Vincent Senam Kuagbenu,a representative of the NDC, said his party started the deboardinasation exercise because the majority of the students were left out of the educational system.
He said the community High School system introduced by the NDC government was to find a lasting solution to the increasing drop out rate which was affecting a lot of students in the country.
He said the NDC would also open more learning centres to absorb all students who could not get admission into the country’s universities.
Dr Vladimir Antwi Danso, a representative of the CPP, said the party when given the mandate would combine the junior high school with the Senior High School system to make it one entity.
He said on completion students would be allowed to branch into their professions and students who could not make it would still find work in the economy since the educational system would be made to work in tandem with the economy.
Dr Antwi Danso said the present educational system was running parallel to the economy, and that a lot of students were churned out from the educational system without the relevant qualification.