EDUCATION:Nana Addo to spend less than 1% of GDP on free education

Nana Akufo Addo

The presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, says he will spend less than one per cent of Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product in terms of additional cost to fund his free Senior High School (SHS) education programme.
 
Speaking at the 2nd Institute of Economic Affairs Presidential Debate on Tuesday, Nana Akufo-Addo, said his promise to make Senior High School Education free will cost the country GH¢1.45 billion (1.3% of GDP) by 2016.
 
He said the total expenditure to bring the campaign promise to fruition will constitute zero point nine percent of Ghana’s gross domestic product.
 
Nana Akufo-Addo said he would aggressively go ahead with his efforts to ensure that every Ghanaian child gets access to free education from primary school to tertiary to significantly reduce the alarming rate of school dropouts in the country.
 
He said his focus will not only be on free education but also the quality of education that the students receive.
 
The former Attorney General and Justice Minister said he was going to
fund the cost of education through the prudent use of resources, guarding the public purse against corruption and also with a percentage of the oil revenue allocated to the Ghana National Petroleum Authority as well as the budgetary allocation to the GETFund.
 
Currently, the country spends less than five per cent of GDP on
education.
 
Nana Akufo Addo cited African countries such as Kenya, which spends 6.7 per cent of its GDP on Education, South Africa six per cent and Lesotho, 13 per cent of GDP on education.
 
Nana Addo stated that his free education policy would include boarding, lodging and meals, computer education, science education and day students.
 
He said the policy would also focus on teacher training, incentives for
teachers, as well as effective supervision and learning to efficiently
improve the education system.
 
Nana Addo reaffirmed his promise of building a new society of
opportunities if elected President of Ghana in the 2012 general
elections.
 
The society of opportunities he said, would be built through the radical intensification of efforts in pursuing the transformation and
modernisation of the national economy, so that it could create jobs for the broad mass of the people on the basis of social justice, the rule of law, respect for human rights and the principles of democratic
accountability.
 
Nana Addo pledged to make Ghana a safe, peaceful, united and ensure that Ghana stays peaceful before, during and after the 2012 elections.
 
On corruption, Nana Akufo Addo stated that he is determined to fight
corruption out of the system. Nana Addo stated that this can be done
because he is not corrupt, has never been corrupt and will never be
corrupt. He added that he has the best team who are incorruptible and together NPP administration can fight the corruption that has become rampant in our societies.
 
Speaking on the Health sector Nana Akufo Addo added that he will expand the health sector to ensure that doctors are locally trained rather than sent outside the country for training.

RadioXYZonline.com