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The Progressive People�s Party (PPP) on Wednesday held a news conference on its education policy, which focuses on ensuring free, compulsory and continuous education from the basic through to the Senior High School (SHS) level. Mr Frederick Anyan, a Lecturer at the Ashesi University and a Member of the PPP Communications team, said the party intends to achieve this vision through enhancement of government revenue. �We propose a minimum of 30 per cent of the national budget to be spent on education with an estimated incremental spending over a five- year period of GH₵ 5.5 billion,� he said. He said this could be achieved through re-ordering government priority areas, strengthening revenue collection and revenue generation institutions, checking government waste and leakages, to ensure that the educational sector gets a higher share of the national budget. He acknowledged the fact that �knowledge and skills have become the global currency of 21st century economies, but there is no central bank that prints this currency. Everyone has to decide on their own how much they will print�. He said education is a better driver of a nation�s economy than gold, oil, gas and such other natural resources, and �without it our natural resources will continue to be siphoned away from us with our blessing and turn us into paupers forever�. Mr Anyan emphasised the need to increase investment in terms of budgetary allocation for improved teaching and learning materials, as well as attracting professionals to ensure quality output. According to him a well-educated people tend to be more prosperous as they apply their knowledge and understanding to industry, research and all fields of endeavour in a more productive and profitable manner. Mr Anyan told the journalists that the party recognises the need for the expansion of educational facilities and to enable every child�s demand for access to be met. This, he said, makes the PPP�s educational policy slightly different from that of its political opponents who dwell on �expanding access�. According to him the PPP�s policy will ensure that a �free senior high school education� is a right to all children and does not perpetuate the privilege reality as exists presently, where only those who �manage� to pass the Basic Education Certificate Examination and secure a place advance to the high School level. �Ours is the policy that is comprehensive and consistent with standards set by countries that have overcome underdevelopment and poverty in the world,� he said. Mr Anyan indicated that the present educational system has not, and would not help Ghana to develop its human capital unless government recognises the need to increase investment into the sector through its budgetary allocation, especially for the improvement of teaching and learning. He said the PPP intends to build a knowledgeable, technology-driven economy with her own industry that uses the raw materials to produce. The party, he said, is determined to give priority to the implementation of its �No Child Left Behind at Home� policy in its national budget. He said countries such as Malaysia, Taiwan, Bolivia, Singapore and Japan who have made major headways in their educational systems, had achieve such successes through sustained investment and financial commitment towards the achievement of their national educational goals. He noted that although Government's budget had increased over the years, it had not corresponded with allocations to the educational sector; instead the budget allocation for education has been dwindling since 2010. Mr Anyan said the challenge of little motivation has made teaching less attractive to retain more professional teachers in the field, while lack of teaching and learning materials, as well as poor supervision, has resulted in the poor performances that have been recorded by the sector over the past few years. The withdrawal of the teacher trainee allowances was therefore in bad taste and reasons given unacceptable, he said. He challenged government to set its priorities right and endeavour to close all revenue collection leakages, strengthen the collection agencies in order to secure more revenue for development purposes.