I Support The GCBC; JHS & SHS For Every Leader's Child, If...! - Pratt

Managing Editor of the Insightnewspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr. has supported the call of the Ghana Charismatic Bishops' Conference (GCBC), saying if the leaders of the country want Ghanaians to accept the free SHS policy; they should show leadership by example. The GCBC has called on government to scrap the Junior High School (JHS) and Senior High School (SHS) education systems. They have asked the government to replace it with the 'O' and 'A' level system and describing JHS and SHS as an inferior form of education. The Bishops argued that politicians and wealthy people do not allow their students to pass through JHS and SHS but "instead, they take their children to schools that undetake ‘O’ and ‘A’ level courses because they can afford it. If JHS and SHS were not an inferior form of education, why do they take their children out of them when they have the money to do so?". In a communiqué issued by the General Secretary of the Conference, Rev. Kwasi Deh; the Bishops called for a reintroduction of the 'O' and 'A' level education to help Ghanaians. Contributing to a panel discussion on Peacefm's Kokrokoo", he noted that it is erroneous for the leaders not to take their children through JHS and SHS as claimed by the Charismatic Bishops. Mr. Pratt held strongly that "if JHS is something good and SHS is also something good, our leaders should allow their children to attend too...I agree with the Bishops on this subject." According to him, the leaders cannot encourage Ghanaians to take their children through those two educational systems while they decide to take theirs to special schools. "When you prepare soup, are you not the one to first taste it? You’ve prepared soup but you don’t want to taste it but then you’re saying, Kwami, come and taste my soup to see whether it’s salty. So, those who are preparing the soup, they should equally taste it and we will follow suit.” Kwesi Pratt further stated that though the free SHS policy is a good initiative, he agrees with some stakeholders in Ghana's education system that the timing might be wrong. He added that a study by the stakeholders in the education sector indicates that government needs about 1.6 billion cedis to implement the free SHS for the first year. Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta presenting the 2017 Budget before Parliament however told the house that the government had apportioned about 400 million cedis to carry out the project. This, to Mr. Pratt, means the country will be in deficit of GHC 1.2 billion in order to effectively implement the policy. He therefore wondered why government is in a hurry to roll out the project this year and advised that it takes time to review the policy. Also touching on the issue of the free SHS, Deputy Communications Director of the opposition NDC, Fred Agbenyo called for a clear-cut blueprint of the kind of education the country wants to be drawn for every government. He said governments should not be allowed to determine the type of education the citizenry desire. “There should be a clear-cut blueprint that this is the kind of education we desire as a country. So, when you come as government, what methodology will you use to achieve that result? You must not determine the result you want for the nation. No!”

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi /Peacefmonline.com/Ghana