One of several serial callers of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Osei Yaw Nketiah, popularly called Dr Asemfofro, says Ghanaians cannot wait for another 20 years before they access free education.
This, according to him, was because it was becoming extremely difficult for parents to shoulder the increasing cost of education in the country.
�We can�t wait for 20 years before we get free education. As it stands now, Ghanaians are yearning for free education; so if in the face of all this economic hardship, they are able to reduce the burden of paying school fees on parents I think it would help but if he (the President) is not able to provide free education, then the NPP is likely to remove us from power in the next election,� he noted in an interview with Daily Guide.
While commending the President�s intention to establish a new university in the Eastern region, Dr Asemfofro quizzed rhetorically �if the children are not able to go to secondary school, how can they go to the university?�
�The money he is going to build that university can be used as a start-up capital for the provision of free education because we do what is needed first before what is wanted.�
The NDC foot-soldier entreated the President to experiment the free education in five regions and then add three more if the programme proves successful after four years.
�If we say we will sit down for 20 years to come then it will not be good.� �There are several children who have completed junior high school and cannot continue because their parents can�t afford to pay the school fees.�
�I took one of my nephews to the Mpraeso senior secondary school and they took well over GHC700.00 from me; that was aside other things that we had to buy all amounting to GHC1,600.�
�Not all parents can afford to pay this so if they should absorb part of this cost, I think that would help,� he emphasized. He therefore called on President Mahama to do everything possible to make education free to lessen the burden of Ghanaian parents.
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