Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the Supreme Court of Ghana will today, May 14, 2015 give its final judgment on the case of Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) involving the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), the plaintiff, and the Attorney-General (A-G), the defendant.
Speaking to Today yesterday in an interview in Accra, the National Secretary of the PPP, Kofi Asamoah-Siaw, was upbeat that the PPP would receive a favourable judgment despite the long delay determining the matter.
According to him, a victory in the case would not be for PPP but for Ghana, especially for parents, who cannot afford to pay their wards school fees.
The PPP, he indicated, was more interested in the “compulsory” aspect of the FCUBE policy where every school going child would be compelled to go to school.
“What we (PPP) are fighting for is not for us but for the entire nation and generations unborn,” he said.
He said the PPP would be represented in court by its legal team led by Somuah Asamoah, and other leading members of the party who would be present witness the ruling.
It would be recalled that the PPP on March 31, 2014 filed a writ at the Supreme Court seeking, among other things, to have a further interpretation of the FCUBE and also compel government to implement the compulsory aspect of the policy as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution.
The PPP’s reliefs, among other things, seek to have “a declaration that on the true and proper interpretation of Articles 25 (1) (a) and 38 (2) of the 1992 Constitution, Government of Ghana had only twelve years commencing from January 7, 1993 to January 6, 2005 to have delivered to the Ghanaian children of school going age free, compulsory and universal basic education and that the government has failed in discharging the said constitutional duty imposed on her by the people of Ghana.”
It is further praying the Supreme Court to render the true and proper interpretation of Articles 14 (1) (e), 25(1) (a) and 38 (2) of the 1992 Constitution that say, “the Government of Ghana has a constitutional duty to compel children of school-going age within the Republic who refuse and or fail so to do to be at school without fail and that the Ghana Government’s failure to so act thereto constitutes an omission that is inconsistent with the constitution.”
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