Radio and TV Personality Nana Ansah Kwao has cautioned government to be weary of their flagship policy; the Free Senior High School which they implemented September 2017 explaining that the programme will stem chaos and conflict in the country.
Speaking as a guest on Kwaku Sintim Misa’s “Bo Me Nkomo” on Sapphire TV, Nana Ansah Kwao IV who also doubles as the Paramount Chief of Adumasa in the Eastern region maintained that the policy should have been a “Free Skills Education” in order to cater for poor people to who are unable to take their wards through school due to the several school materials they are to make available at the various levels of education.
“…I keep on saying that free education is what will fuel chaos and conflict in the country… It should have been free skills education. If you say you’re poor and can’t take your ward through school, why should government use the taxpayer’s money to fund the ward to study for example general arts when several ‘rich’ people’s children are unable to get jobs after completing the specific arts. It would be best to fund your ward to learn specific skills or vocational skills such as agriculture, animal husbandry, electric wiring, photography etc to a very high standard in order to become readily marketable upon completion.
He indicated that it was not prudent to keep churning students in the theoretical line of studies for majority of them to only be viable in the public institutions when older folks who reach retirement ages sign affidavits to slash their date of birth.
The Chief cited former governor of the Gold Coast, Gordon Guggisberg in 1925 who complained that the average Ghanaians feels that upon completion of tertiary education all handy jobs are beneath him/her. He stressed that it was important for Ghanaians to embrace practical jobs in order get out of the unemployment bracket.
Nana Ansah Kwao IV noted that the high incidence of unemployed graduates in the system will result in the frustration and eventual chaos when the youth decide to take matters in their hands.
He therefore charged government to consider upgrading the national policy into one which will develop or enhance the skills of students who are in school to help them obtain employment upon completion. He also admonished the executive to liaise with the Ghana Statistical Service to identify the sectors where employment is available to make it easier for those in schools to find jobs.
Below is the full interview-
Source: ghanaweb.com
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Nana I bet to differ from your asertion and this is my opinion. In the first play my question to the good Nana is there or was there any chaos in the North since the implementation of free education in the northern part of the country? Is it not tax payers money used for that purpose? Does nana knows knows tha the free she covers technical education? Nana should also understand that those who planned and implemented the FREE SHS are knowledgeable as he is or more than he is. Some selfish and greedy persons will not like the poor child to be as the same level as his or her child may be. Let's wait and see what skill training Nana is going to give his children.i rest my case.
This guy calls himself a chief ? indeed!!!!! NDC infested his mind.
Nana, I beg to differ from your assertion. Why should the merit of studying beyond JHS be the preserve of those whose parents can afford it? Why should children whose parents have been unable to afford to pay for their higher education be constrained to handy jobs, so they will become our carpenters, mechanics and cooks? For a moment, pause to consider the sort of society we will be building; the haves and the have nots - with the latter confined to an impoverished life. Look around Ghana and you will find prominent people who needed public help to make it to their current status. I will cite the numerous examples of our fathers/mothers and brothers/sisters from Northern Ghana who benefited from Nkrumah's free education. Proper and higher education is the best tool to lift people, and generations after them, from poverty. Let us continue to find ways to improve the FREE SHS policy and what has been started. There MUST NEVER be a turning back on offering the poor a proper helping hand, and it MUST NEVER be geared towards confining them to areas the rich would not put their kids.
The only motive behind the free SHS implementation was to push children through so that at election time those who have attained 18 will vote for npp. This is why they didn't think through what they were bringing thoroughly. I agree that if you give free education by vocational training if student comes out she or she can do something on his or a own rather that this whole say literary training aimed at clerical jobs.