<<Print>>

Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia over the weekend wowed students of the Northern Student�s Union and others from various schools inside the Bolgatanga municipality when he rolled out various ideas the NPP would be introducing in the educational sector to improve the standards of education across the country. Speaking on among others, sustainable job creation for the youth, Dr, Bawumia stated that in the current competitive global environment, all states that seek to gain an advantage over the competition from other states need to focus on creating a skilled and educated workforce as the global competition ultimately comes down to skills. He stated �the more knowledgeable your people, the more competitive you are globally; it is not about your natural resources. If it was about your natural resources then Africa would have been the most developed continent in the world. We have a lot of natural resources but we get �out-competed� in the area of skills� he added. The former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana indicated that this was the background to the decision of Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP to introduce free education to the senior high school. �If education becomes a matter of money, then only rich people�s children would go to school; that is the bottom line but we do not want education to be a matter of money, there are too many very bright people who should have access to education and that is why Nana Akufo Addo has said that the NPP would implement Free Senior High School education in Ghana; it is a major promise, but it is a doable promise�, Dr. Bawumia stated. Dr. Bawumia indicated that the focus was not only on making the education free but was on delivering free, quality education. Dr. Bawumia in explaining further stated that to ensure that there was quality education, the NPP administration would ensure that it infuses modern technology in the delivery of teaching and learning across the country. He asked if any of the students knew what was taught in any subject in Achimota school, Mfantsipim, Wesley Girls, Prempeh College or any of the renowned Senior High Schools in Ghana, which was met with deafening silence. He continued, �now think about that for a minute, some of the best schools in our country, public schools; don�t we have the technology to know on a day to day or week by week basis exactly what they are being thought in their classrooms?� He said that through technology and the internet specifically, it would for example be possible to put lectures on the internet to ensure that students in the North to know what is being thought in schools in the south and vice-versa and that this would also make it possible for teachers in the North to learn various workable teaching methods from their colleagues in the south which would be infused in their lessons and for teachers in the south to also learn from their colleagues in the south. Using himself as an example, he said that when he delivered his lessons to his students from Canada when he got his first appointment as a lecturer in an American university. Dr. Bawumia stated that these are some of the ideas that the NPP would introduce when it comes to power to ensure quality education in all parts of the country by infusing the power of technology today and that this was not only necessary but fair since students in all parts of the country are ultimately going to write the same examinations and since all public schools regardless of their location or class are funded by the tax payer. The NPP Vice-Presidential candidate noted that to facilitate this, the government of Nana Akufo-Addo would first as a matter of policy expand internet access to all schools to the extent possible. He said that by using the power of the internet and the power of technology, it would be easier to bridge the gap between the disparities in our educational system and stated that the Nana Akufo-Addo administration would think outside the box, when elected.