The University of Cape Coast (UCC) branch of the Tertiary Education Information Network (TEIN), has described the free Senior High School (SHS) education promise by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as �a mere political gimmick� intended to deceive the electorate.
It said the Network, a wing of the ruling National Democratic Congress at the university, was not against free education for all per se, but a critical look of the proposed policy by the NPP showed that if the Government was made the sole financier of education, quality and standards would be compromised.
In a statement signed by Felix Horsu, Propaganda Secretary of the UCC TEIN and copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), the Network accused the NPP of trying to mislead the people of Ghana with its non-feasible proposal to institute free SHS education.
It said such a proposal would automatically increase enrollment and that would put pressure on the already inadequate infrastructure of the schools, adding that the issue of infrastructure must be addressed to help achieve quality education.
It further stated that the free education being preached by the NPP was �a phantom policy, which will not see the light of day� but was just to throw dust in the eyes of Ghanaians.
The statement also indicated that the NPP was desperate to win power and added that the country�s education was experiencing a huge teacher deficit where in some schools the teacher-student-ratio was one is to 70.
�We want to put on record that we are not against free education,� the statement stressed but added that for it to be achieved, all the bottlenecks facing the current educational system needed to be addressed in order not to discourage competition among students' desire to score high marks to get the best SHS to attend.
TEIN, therefore, urged all Ghanaians, particularly the youth to reject the NPP and vote for President John Dramani Mahama in his bid to achieve the Better Ghana Agenda for all in the country.
<<Print>>