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Ghana goes to the polls on December 7, 2020, to elect a new president. It is everyone’s right to exercise their voting rights as long as you are an eligible voter. As a student, what should form the basis of your vote? Are you voting on a partisan basis or track record? The Education sector is too vital and of great interest to you as a student. In this article, we will list a number of political parties’ policies on education.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Policies on Education
Ahead of the Elections, the NDC launched its manifesto on September 7, 2020. Here is a brief highlight of what it says concerning education and what is promises:
The next NDC Government in their manifesto promises to absorb 50% fees of tertiary students for the 2020/2021 academic year as an incentive to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 on students and parents. It also promises to establish free Wi-Fi Zones in all public and private institutions as well as providing free laptops to students to facilitate participation in e-learning.
Also, it promises to establish universities in the six newly created regions, establish a faculty of Law in the Northern Region and northern sector and increase student loans by 100% while providing free tertiary education for people with disabilities.
Progressive People’s Party
The PPP in its manifesto stated that it will provide Quality Education for Every Ghanaian Child. We will standardize school facilities from kindergarten to Senior High, with libraries, toilets, classrooms, kitchen, housing for teachers, playground, etc.: and implement a Free and Compulsory education in public schools from Kindergarten to Senior High including a comprehensive ICT training programme.
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The Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG)
The Liberal Party of Ghana was founded by Kofi Akpaloo in March 2017 who is also their presidential candidate for this year’s election.
LPG will invest GHC2.0 billion over 4 years to:
- Implement computer programming and coding as a core in the national curriculum.
- Boost the skills of 100,000 current primary and secondary teachers
- We will train 50,000 new teachers who are (STEM)
- Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math graduates and will encourage more women to study, teach, and work in these fields.
- Be clear about the outcomes we seek.
- Collaborate to redesign structures and processes for effectiveness,
- efficiency, and flexibility.
- Continually monitor and measure our performance.
- Hold ourselves accountable for progress and results in every step of the way.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP)
The NPP has outlined a number of promises it made prior to the 2016 elections and what they have achieved so far and seek to do. We will list a number of its promises from their 2020 manifesto. We will highlight key promises it made as they seek to maintain power this year.
The NPP absorbed the BECE fees in 2018 as well as the WASSCE fees in 2020. It implemented the free Senior High School policy and increased student loans by 50%.
Information Communication Technology (ICT) is now compulsory in all Teacher training Colleges while basic programming was introduced at the Junior High and Senior High School level. The NPP manifesto also stated that it had awarded a contract to provide free Wi-Fi services in secondary and tertiary institutions.
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This is just a highlight of some of the key promises made and kept. Like its slogan, they ask for four more years to do more.
You have all the policies the parties have on Education. You owe it to yourself to vote for the right candidate, choose development, think about your Education, and other factors that are important to you as a student and as a citizen of Ghana. We hope this analysis will help you make an informed decision on December 7, 2020.
We have only one Ghana, we are a nation of love and peace. May this peace prevail in our upcoming election and afterward. God bless Ghana!