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The United Front Party (UFP) has assured to abolish the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) when voted into power but would make parents pay for fees at the Senior High School (SHS) level. The Deputy Public Relations Officer of the UFP, Mr Seidu Alhassan who announced this explained that whilst some pupils at the urban communities have access to educational facilities, their counterparts at the rural areas go to school without any meaningful facilities for their academic programmes. He argued that writing the same examination therefore affect the rural dwellers and deny them the opportunity to pass well and gain entry into senior high schools. Mr Alhassan who was presenting the UFP�s position on education during a town hall meeting organised by the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) in Kumasi on Tuesday said denying students at the rural place the opportunity to access SHS through examination was very unfortunate, He said students who drop out of school become armed robbers, hence the need to abolish such examinations to enable all students at the basic level develop their potentials in a meaningful way. The Kumasi Town Hall meeting was the third to be organised by the GCGL as part of its corporate social responsibility to offer political parties the platform to present their policies in the areas of education, agriculture, health and the economy. It was also to enrich the democratic process to make the December 7 elections peaceful. Similar events have already been organized in Ho and Takoradi. There will be a similar event at the Radach Hotel in Tamale on Thursday. In Kumasi, six political parties, the United Front Party (UFP), New Patriotic Party (NPP), Convention Peoples Party (CPP), Peoples National Convention (PNC), Progressive People�s Party (PPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) took part in the event. Presenting the UFP�s position on education, Mr Alhassan said parents would have to pay for the fees of their wards at the SHS level but said such fees would be more affordable. �SHS will not be free under the Odike government but it would be more accessible, moderate and qualitative. We will make parents pay for the education of their children but our government will subsidise it a little�. The NPP, represented by Professor Joshua Ayarkwa and Dr Anthony Nsiah Asare however reiterated on the free education policy at both the basic and senior high level. Professor Joshua Ayarkwa said education remains key in their policy and will not do anything to compromise the desire to build the capacity of the youth and provide them with employable skills. He said for every 100 children who start school at the basic level, only three succeed in entering universities or any tertiary institution. He attributed the problem to high cost of education in the country making it impossible for as many children as possible to access education. �The NPP will provide teachers with in-service training and increase teacher training facilities in the country so as to be able to provide as many teachers as possible�, he said. Prof Ayarkwa assured that the NPP government will introduce ICT facilities at both the basic and senior high levels and also provide computers for teachers as a way of providing them with the skills and motivating them to improve quality. On the part of the Peoples National Convention (PNC), their representative Mr Ali Arime-Yawo, the Ashanti Regional Organiser said the PNC government under Hassan Ayariga will enforce the compulsory portion of education at the basic level. He explained that enforcing education at the basic level will enable all children of school going age enter school, develop their potentials and become assets to the nation in future. He also assured that under the PNC government, teachers will be adequately equipped by providing them with the requisite facilities in school and also make them undertake regular in-service training to keep them abreast with current developments in all school curricula. He said they will also establish measures that will adequately motivate students for them to develop their creative powers and by so doing became entrepreneurs after graduation. Mr Daniel Essien, the Convention People�s Party (CPP) Ashanti Regional Secretary and Parliament candidate for Kwadaso also underscored the need to facilitate education and assured of state intervention to make education free and provide facilities that will enhance quality at all levels. He also indicated the readiness of the CPP to offer requisite training for teachers and provide them with incentives that will motivate them to do their best. Mr Essien said under a CPP government, income tax of teachers would be reduced to the minimum level and also provide incentives for those who will accept posting to rural communities. This, he said would help raise standards in rural schools. Mr Essien also assured that vocational and technical schools will be adequately equipped with the view of building capacity of students for them to secure jobs after school. Under the �Better Ghana Agenda� of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), education will be more efficient and accessible, according to Mr Kwasi Ofori Agyeman Boadi, a member of the Ashanti Regional Communication Team of the NDC. He said they will not only provide access to children for them to access education, but also provide the needed facilities that will make it more efficient. He said the party will also enforce the compulsory aspect of the FCUBE to enable all children enter school at the basic level. At the SHS level however, Mr Boadi said parents will pay for the cost but government will absorb part of such cost to make it more affordable. Like the NPP, CPP and PNC the Progressive People�s Party (PPP) said education will be free at all levels. Dr T.B. Kwofie who gave the assurance said under the PPP government they will also enforce the compulsory level of basic education and also make vocational and technical education, a priority. This, he said will enable students who attend technical and vocational schools develop their potential and acquire the requisite skills that will enable them establish their own businesses. The party representatives also made presentations on other thematic areas on agriculture, the economy and heath.