Sir John Punches Mills

The General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has taken a swipe at the Mills-led government, accusing it of collapsing the country�s educational sector. Lawyer Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie aka �Sir John� said a recent survey which showed that about 64 percent of Junior High School (JHS) pupils cannot read or write should be attributed to the government. He contended that the unpleasant findings emerged because of the Mills administration�s lack of vision to adopt sound policies to uplift the country�s educational sector. According to him, this gloomy report never came up during the eight-year rule of ex-President Kufuor because of the NPP�s long standing vision which led to massive transformation of the country�s educational sector. Speaking at the commissioning of an Information Communication Center (ICT) for Amos Okrah JHS at Sakora Wonoo in the Kwabre East of the Ashanti region, the NPP General Secretary said the survey should worry all and sundry. �If 64 percent of JHS pupils cannot read or write, what it means is that the country is banishing about half of the youth to a future of hopelessness and struggle. �This is not the way to build a nation and we should work together to put a stop to this phenomenon of failure and hopelessness,� the vociferous NPP General Secretary emphasized. Sir John stressed that the society should give the youth education and skills for employment. �The next NPP government will introduce a policy that will make Senior High School (SHS) part of the basic school system and therefore the first point of exit for every Ghanaian child,� Sir John noted. He said �again, we are determined to tackle the critical issue of the kind of education that we offer to our citizens,� stressing that Nana Addo�s government will focus on teachers. Sir John noted that Nana Addo�s administration will put the needs of the teacher first to ensure that the desire for achieving quality education is achieved at the optimum level. �We intend to enhance quality of education in every public school in Ghana in our overriding goal of building a new society of opportunities by committing, per legislation a significant and constant percentage of our GDP to education,� the NPP General Secretary pointed out. Noting that the freedom of the Ghanaian was meaningless without a deliberate policy to grow his or her intellectual property, Sir John indicated that it was about time the nation took the bull by the horn and inspire confidence in the citizenry. As a native of the town, who is determined to champion quality education, the General Secretary donated three brand new computers and accessories to stock the ICT center of the school. He also donated an amount of GH�500 to the school for the management of the center, promising that he will do everything possible to boost education in the town.