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The Ho-Polytechnic Chapter of the Tertiary Education Students Confederacy (TESCON) of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has said anymore delay in the reform of the educational sector could dampen the development fortunes of the country. It said currently number of drop outs along the process in the progression from the beginning through to the middle and the tertiary level, as a result of access and affordability, should be a big worry for development planners. These views were stated at a press conference in Ho on Tuesday addressed by Samuel Teye Akor, Chapter President. TESCON Ho-Polytechnic Chapter said its views were based on diligent surveys by field officers and that the biggest lingering threat to national development was the progressive lowering standards in education �especially at the most important stage of a child�s formative years, the basic education level�. It said NPP�s proposed �redefinition of basic education, to make it compulsory and free up to Senior Secondary School level,� should be the panacea to the problem of Ghana�s hordes of unskilled young people without the wherewithal and capacity to continue education from the Junior High School level. TESCON Ho-Polytechnic Chapter said the Nana Akufo- Addo�s free-SHS policy would raise capacity levels of all human capital than was the case now. It said President John Mahama�s variant of increasing access now and free-SHS later, was �begging the problem�. TESCON Ho-Polytechnic Chapter complained about poor BECE results and that �out of the total number of 1,121,817 students who sat for the BECE in the past three years (2009, 2010 and 2011) 574,688 failed to achieve the past mark�. �This sudden reversal of student�s performance, resulting in a peculiar constant decline in standards since 2009 calls for urgent, detailed analysis. �It signifies a crisis in education at the basic level that requires urgent and deliberate attention from government,� the statement said. The Ho-Polytechnic TESCON Chapter said the NPP had always been an educational-sector focused party, which during the eight-year tenure of ex-President John Kufuor face-lifted many Senior High Schools, transformed the infrastructural setting of Ho Polytechnic, raised human resource base of polytechnic lecturers across Ghana. It raised issue with the irony of President Mahama, himself enjoying free SHS education but hiding behind the smokescreen of quality and access first, to deny other Ghanaians that opportunity. Flanking Mr Akor, as he read the statement were, Moses Aglina Patron, Felix Dogbe First Vice-Chairman and Felix Akuamoah-Nyako, Second Vice-Chairman.