Our Educational Success Touches My Heart Personally, Dr. Napo reveals

The Vice-Presidential Candidate for the New Patriotic Party Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh has outline the NPP ‘s government achievement in the education sector.

According to him, the NPP government has implemented a National Policy for Educational Access and Equity, which touches his heart in a very personal way.

In a lecture at the University of Memphis in the United States, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the NPP’s vice presidential candidate, said, “I fervently believe, as I am sure most of you do, that education is a key foundation of a progressive, productive country and essential for development.” As a child growing up in an inner-city area of Kumasi, the second-largest city in Ghana, I witnessed numerous kids from low-income families fulfill their scholastic dreams and attain life-changing results. In fact, research conducted worldwide has demonstrated that there are substantial returns on investment for each year of education, regardless of whether the graduates are eventually hired in the public or private sector.

Dr. Opoku Prempeh said, a nation that does not prioritize education and plan for its certain outcomes is bound to fail. Particularly in developing countries, education serves as a powerful tool for social mobility, enabling individuals to leap from deprivation to prosperity. As they say, it is brains—not natural resources—that build a nation. Many countries with limited natural resources but strong investments in education have seen remarkable development by opening opportunities for all.

According to him, in order for a critical mass of persons to have access to education, obstacles must be reduced. To guarantee that all children, irrespective of their backgrounds, gender, geographic regions, etc., have an equal chance to receive the greatest education policy, ‘this access must also have an equity component. Important elements like infrastructure and teaching and learning resources and tools must also not be disregarded’. He added

Dr. Opoku Prempeh informed the audience that the main focus of his address is Ghana’s Free Senior High School (SHS) initiative, which the present administration implemented in September 2017. As then-Minister of Education, I had the honor — or rather the difficulty — of enacting this monumental signature program within seven months of taking office.

According to the former education minister, Ghana’s Constitution has always acknowledged education as vital to the country’s prosperity. With provisions for Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) and a vow to gradually make higher education free.

However, these constitutional obligations have not been the primary priority of every government that has taken office since the Constitution’s adoption in 1992.

“Under the distinguished leadership of President John Agyekum Kufuor, we took concrete steps to increase access to basic education during the first NPP administration from 2001 to 2009,” he recalled. Adding that, This included the implementation of the Capitation Grant, which eliminated tuition fees and gave institutions direct money for operating expenses. During this time, over 60% of people attended. In 2024, the capitation stipend per kid will have increased from GHC 5 in 2016 to GHC 15.

He explained that the Ghana School Feeding Programme, which was also implemented by the Kufuor administration, tackled hunger, malnutrition, and low school attendance by giving one healthy meal per day to children in public primary and kindergarten schools. Initially a test initiative in ten schools, the program grew swiftly, benefitting nearly 1.6 million children in 2017. Today, the project benefits almost 4 million youngsters. In fact, under President Kufuor, Ghana met practically all of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for basic education, with the exception of one: universal primary education and gender parity. We achieved almost 100% enrollment in basic education.

He then goes on to describe the education policies implemented by the new NPP government starting in 2017, claiming that the situation was severe. According to data from 2013 to 2016, 100,000 children annually who passed the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) were unable to enroll in SHS despite being eligible because of financial limitations, which resulted in the termination of their formal education. This accounted for almost 35% of all students that took the BECE exam. For financial concerns, 22% of those who did enroll dropped out. Remarkably, just 8–11% of pupils who passed and were placed did not take up their position in Northern Ghana, where kids have traditionally benefited from fee-free schooling since the 1960s. Financial constraints were undoubtedly a major challenge.

Dr. Prempeh went on to say that if things had continued as they were, Ghana would have had a million young people with the highest level of education being junior high school within ten years. Due to both scholastic and legal restrictions, these people would not have been ready to enter the workforce, as the average age to complete junior high school is 14. Given the importance of education and skills in the twenty-first century, this state of affairs was intolerable and incompatible with progress.

‘President Akufo-Addo was determined to implement the Free SHS policy, despite skepticism even within his own political party. However, the President viewed this policy as a sacred covenant with the Ghanaian people, anchored in conviction, and designed to bear future fruits, The programme was launched in record time in September 2017, just nine months after the NPP took office, following six months of intensive work.’

‘Essentially, the Free SHS policy sought to remove the financial barriers impeding educational access. As the President stated in a speech in February 2017, “…by free SHS, we mean that, in addition to tuition which is already free, there will be no admission fees, no library fees, no science center fees, no computer lab fees, no examination fees, no utility fees; there will be free textbooks, free boarding, and free meals, and day students will get a meal at school for free.” With these barriers removed, there was no excuse not to attend school’. He disclosed

He also disclosed that “within a year of implementing this policy, the 35% rate of students failing to take up their place had been reduced to about 17%.” To accommodate the increased student population, nearly 400 of our 721 Senior High School (SHS) institutions implemented the Double Track system in 2018. Today, almost 5 million children have benefited from this daring plan, with the enrollment transition rate in the Northern regions reaching an astonishing 98% from what we inherited of roughly 85%, and in the Southern areas increasing from 62% to 84. This is the outcome of increased access to education. The Northern figures are always on the high side because that is where free education started from and as I always say, it is good for our country.    Many of the 140 Ghanaian students currently studying here at this great institution benefited from the Free SHS programme, and some may not have made it this far without it. For us in the NPP, this is the essence of governance’.  He added

Sources:myashhfmonline.com