The National Service Secretariat says it is prepared for any legal action resulting from its decision to revoke the appointment of personnel employed by the secretariat towards the end of the erstwhile National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) government in December 2016.

Some 205 recruits whose appointments were terminated by the Secretariat have threatened to seek redress in court over the matter.

The Executive Director of the National Service Scheme, Alhaji Ussif Mustapha told Citi News in an interview that the secretariat did no wrong in terminating the appointments of the new recruits.

He said his outfit is ready to argue out its case should the affected persons drag it before the law court.

“We have a legal department at the NSS and we are ready for any court battle because we know we took the decision in good fate and we are right. The recruitments were done illegal,” he said.

The National Service Scheme on Wednesday [February 8. 2017] issued a statement announcing the revocation of their appointments.

The statement said, “the management of the National Service Scheme (NSS), has on the advice of the Minister of Education, withdrawn the National Service staff recruitment which was done in December 2016 with immediate effect.”

It added that, “This decision is informed by a thorough consideration of violations of due process prior to recruitment. These included petitions to the Public Services Commission (PSC) against the recruitment process upon which the PSC in a letter dated 16th November, 2016, advised the former Ag. Executive Director to halt the recruitment process until the matter was properly resolved. This was however ignored and the appointment letters were issued to some persons on 15th December, 2016.”

It also urged the affected persons to look forward to another opportunity when it conducts a proper staff recruitment.

But the immediate past Executive director of the NSS, Dr Michael Kpessah Whyte who said the decision was wrong, urged the persons affected to go to court.

In an interview on Eyewitness News last week [Wednesday], he said, “as far as I am concerned, during our time, we followed due process to the letter and the documents are there and the new executive director and his team need to ask for them. They should go into correspondences and they should ask for all the correspondence, otherwise, I will advise the new recruits, who have been asked to stay home that if the decision is not reversed, they should take it to court, because the truth is on their side.”

A spokesperson for the sacked recruits, Edwin Afetsi, in a subsequent interview with Citi News said, they will take the matter up in court since they feel unduly targeted and punished for no reason.

“We have reviewed the situation decided that we will pursue the matter in court because we realise that we have done nothing wrong and the decision taken was not based on any proper ground so we will pursue the matter in court. We have spoken to our lawyers and hopefully next week the case may be in court. We want that illegal decision to be revoked. They should revoke their own letter that is trying to revoke our legal appointment.” he said.

–

By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @jnyabor

The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) is making strong progress in the use of the flying robot technology to aid the growth of the nation’s agriculture.

Its College of Engineering (CoE) has developed a home-made drone, which could be deployed to pick weather data, monitor farming activities and environmental degradation.

The device could also serve other vital purposes – for security and atmospheric research.

It was developed by a team of research scientists and engineers of the college and seen as a giant step forward by the country’s foremost science and technology institution to lead cutting-edge research to solve Ghana’s industrial and technological challenges.

Professor Mark Adom-Asamoah, Provost of the College, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA), in Kumasi, that successful tests of the unmanned flying aircraft had been run.

The device had so far been used to monitor the concentration of e-waste at the Agbogbloshie Market in Accra.

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KNUST

Interest in drone technology, innovations and scientific developments had heightened for some time now, bringing a thrilling wave of novel uses for the device from saving lives to protecting the ecology.

Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) estimates that the global market for commercial application of drone technology is expected to balloon to as much as £127 billion by year 2020, up from the current £2 billion.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reportedly, is working to develop a drone for monitoring dangerous weather – hurricane and severe storm sentinel, a device capable of studying the storm from above, closer than any piloted aircraft could safely attempt.

Prof. Adom-Asamoah indicated that research scientists of the college, were determined to come out with appropriate technology to speed up the development of the country.

It had in recent times, pioneered research into the development of open space fire detector – the first of its kind globally, ‘SMART’ door, portable biogas system, solar-powered traffic lights to clean energy technology.

The Provost called for the government to give priority to investing in drone technology.

Drones are becoming the eyes and ears of scientists – used for surveying the ground for archeological sites, signs of illegal hunting and crop damage.

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Source: GNA

President Akufo-Addo says the government is committed to delivering quality education to Ghanaians by ensuring that teacher’s professional development and conditions of service are enhanced.

He said a well-trained, confident and contented teacher was at the heart of his government’s objective to deliver quality education and promised that the views of teachers would be sought on education policy innovation and implementation.

“Their professional development and needs will be treated with respect and we shall ensure that teachers’ salaries and allowances are paid regularly and on time,” the president said this while delivering a speech at the 60th Anniversary of Okuapeman Senior High School at Akropong in the Eastern region.

President Akufo-Addo said teacher trainee allowances, as already announced by the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia would be restored and the cost captured in the first budget of his government.

He noted that his administration would also focus on the provision of incentives that would motivate teachers and reward their hard work in the classroom.

President Akufo-Addo said the Government would collaborate with the Ghana National Association of Teachers and National Association of Graduate Teachers and other teaching associations to facilitate an affordable housing scheme for teachers.

He said teachers would be afforded the opportunity to upgrade their qualifications adding that “we aim to make the teaching profession, once again, a proud choice.”

–

Source: GNA

Students of the Bimbilla Senior High School and all elementary schools have been asked to stay home following the renewed chieftaincy clashes that claimed 10 lives on Thursday and left many homes burnt.

About ten people were killed whilst others were severely injured in a renewed chieftaincy dispute between two factions in Bimbilla.

Speaking to Citi News, a worried parent, Mohammed Hafiz said the decision to allow the children stay home from school for a week was a call in the right direction.

“The schools have closed down because nobody knows who is likely to be the next stray bullet casualty and the children are not safe in the school. This is because bullets are going helter skelter around and people are running with guns and shooting indiscriminately.”

“The schools are also at the heart of the town and not the outskirt. It is the life of the child that matters before the education. Even psychologically, the environment is not a good learning environment. If a child is in class and thinking of bullets and gunshots, I don’t think that child will be able to learn well,” she added.

Residents flee Bimbilla
More residents are fleeing the Bimbilla township in the Northern Region over the recent clashes that left 10 people dead.

One of the residents told Citi News that although they are hoping for the situation to normalize leaving the town is currently a safest option.

“The rumours that we are hearing idthat the place is not safe, people still are not ready for peace so those of us who are not natives we thought it wise to go and hide for a while before coming back. We are hoping for things to normalize but the information we are gathering is not good. What we are hearing is that the two factions want to clash again,” he added.

A woman who spoke to Citi News said “I’m leaving for my safety because my family people have been calling me to come home that is why I’m taking that decision.”

–

By: Godwin A. Allotey & Mohammed Alabira Aminu/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

I was one of the critics who felt that Ghana didn’t need free Senior High School education, when President Nana Akufo-Addo, then Flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in opposition, started trumpeting the idea ahead of election 2012.

And what was my reason? I just followed the random arguments that first of all; we needed to address challenges in the quality of our education at the basic level, Senior High School level and tertiary.

But truthfully speaking, I am not sure I would have kicked against the idea, if I had struggled to get secondary school education because I came from a penniless home that couldn’t even provide a meal per day.

I am now tempted to think that, my viewpoint on free SHS, was insensitive to the plight of the thousands who couldn’t get SHS education or struggled very hard to get it either because they were orphans with no help, or that their parents were too poor.

My view on free SHS has changed not because I am indecisive; but because I have gone through some introspection.

I have come across stories recently that broke my heart. First, I met a 19-year old orphan; Daniel Amoah; who had aggregate 23 after JHS. Daniel is naturally talented in electronics; but had stayed home for a year due to lack of support for him to go to school.

I got to know about Daniel’s plight through my younger brother; and after seeing the things he had created with his talent; I was even poised to support him personally regardless of the burden. But I later introduced him to Citi FM’s scholarship programme COPE, and luckily Daniel is now in a Technical School where his talent is being honed. Daniel was lucky to have met me; but there are many others like him; whose dreams have been shattered by poverty and lack of support.

My colleague at Citi FM, Nana Ama Agyeman-Asante, recently told me another heart-breaking story of twin brothers in the Ashanti Region, who both graduated with distinction from JHS; but couldn’t further their education because of poverty. The youngest of the twin, Attah, decided to come to Accra to be a drivers’ mate so he could raise money to go to school. But today, Atta is dead. He died from an accident whiles working on a ‘VIP Bus’ as a mate – It’s a sad story that brings tears to my eyes.

During the recent SHS admissions, I had to break my back to support my Auntie who is a single parent, so that her only son who gained admission at Pope John SHS could enroll. But for my generosity; that boy’s future would have been threatened.

And I can’t forget about the sad tale of my bosom friend. In 2002, while I had the privilege reading General Arts at Chemu Senior High School through the hard work of my plantain seller mother, my best friend, whose father and mother had left him to fend for himself as a result of a broken home, had to drop out of school due to poverty and lack of support.

Oscar is a brilliant guy who was reading electricals at the Tema Technical Institute. But after he took care of himself as a ‘shoe shine boy’ through primary and Junior High School where he was the best student with aggregate 12, he couldn’t do it anymore in his second year at Tematech, and my friend painfully dropped out of school. He’s 35 years now; and that misfortune has affected him greatly as he’s yet to fully put the pieces of his life together. I know it’s a story that still brings tears to his eyes and mine as well.

The free SHS is not just an idea or a policy, it’s a dream saver; and we must all embrace it even as we make proposals to fine-tune it.

The ‘unusual promise’

Indeed, President Akufo-Addo’s promise back then; was unusual to many, and as human as we are; we were scared of the kind of change the determined politician was proposing. So understandably, many rubbished the idea, and called it one of those vote-buying pranks.

His political opponents jumped onto the seeming public rejection, and made political capital out of it. But deep down their hearts, they knew that it was not just an ambitious idea, but it was a good and transformational one especially when some of them benefited from some form of free education under Ghana’s first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

Nonetheless, because of political expediency, Nana Addo was bastardized, and the idea was pooh-poohed.

Then in a surprising and hypocritical manner, his opponents who won the election that year, turned around to endorse the policy at the latter part of their 4-year tenure, but started a shabby implementation process.

In fact, to put it bluntly, it was a deceptive free SHS implementation re-christened ‘progressive free SHS’, which was only meant to score cheap political points because another election was approaching.

And in the minds of the opponents, by doing this, they were also seeking to weaken the NPP, since they couldn’t trumpet the same idea in the lead up to the 2016 election.

The NDC’s U-turn as far as this policy is concerned, is only a firm confirmation that the free SHS idea is a good one that must happen someday. Their only fear however, was when and how it would be done, and whether they were ready to finance it. So the rejection in the past appears to have been borne out of fear.

Nana Addo on the other hand, has exhibited the very ingredient needed to kick-start this audacious; but life-transforming project – and that is courage.
And I am deeply gladdened that Nana Akufo-Addo now President, has been consistent and honest to Ghanaians; by reiterating his commitment to fulfill the pledge he made four years ago; although this wasn’t the main focus of his campaign ahead of election 2016.

In the past, I have kicked against policies such as free sandals to school children because in my view; they were a very lazy way of solving a bigger problem of parents’ inability to cater for their kids.

This is President Akufo-Addo’s latest comment about the free SHS policy “we will fund the cost of public Senior High Schools for all those who qualify for entry from the 2017/2018 academic year onward; so that no one in Ghana is left in any doubts.”

“By free SHS, we mean that, in addition to tuition which is already free, there will be no admission fees, no library fees, no science centre fees, no computer lab fees, no examination fees, no utility fees; there will be free textbooks, free boarding and free meals, and day students will get a meal at school for free.”

He added that “the free SHS will also cover agricultural, vocational and technical institutions at the high school level. I also want to state clearly again that, we have a well-thought out plan that involves the building of new public Senior High Schools and cluster public Senior High Schools”.

If parents, guardians and relatives know that they have to cater for their wards’ basic education for them to pass out well and go to SHS for free; which of these caretakers won’t invest in that area for the child to come out with a pass?

Even the lowest income earner, may not need freebies like uniforms or sandals at that level for their children because already they pay less for tuition and other services in public basic schools.

Ahead of election 2016, I found myself in the Jomoro Constituency in the Western Region, where a young mother of two who sells fish, told me she was going to vote for change because of the free SHS promise.

These were her words “I know that when Nana Addo comes, he won’t give me money, but if he implements the free SHS; that will bring me relief.”

If we are going to get a point in Ghana where the least education that even the poorest person can get is Senior High School education, it will mean a lot for this country.

It will mean that; our literacy rate in years to come; will be much higher, and there will be positive gains from that for our development as a country.

Funding for free SHS 

This country deserves much more than we get from our politicians. Elsewhere, citizens are benefiting from the state in the areas of housing, health, stipends for the unemployed and several other social services.

Yet here in Ghana, we get very little from our taxes, and from the vast resources this country boasts of.

In the last decades, the only single policy that has benefited the masses of this country is the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). And even that, a particular party kicked against it, and its MPs voted against it in Parliament. I am sure they kicked against it for the same reason of the fear that we weren’t ready. But we all know that today; the NHIS despite its challenges has relieved millions of Ghanaians.

When are we going to be ready to implement free Senior High School or any other massive social intervention programme? We have had every rich resource on this earth that we need to develop and make lives better for ourselves; we don’t need any other resource except the courage, the commitment, the selflessness and the determination to change things drastically.

This country isn’t poor – we know the ‘poor country’ tag is a fallacy – Our so-called poverty is self-inflicted through greed, selfishness and corruption.
And so if we deal with corruption effectively, do away with greed and selfishness, industrialize our country to add value to our raw materials and create jobs and wealth, as well as improve taxation, the free SHS can be funded and sustained effectively.

The truth is; there is no perfect time to start anything. The perfect time only begins the day you make that choice courageously.

Wholesale free SHS or targeted?

But while this is a good idea, let’s be guided by the hiccups the NHIS has suffered, so we don’t repeat them.

Some are of the view that there shouldn’t be wholesale free SHS for all including the affluent in our society who can afford to send their children to Morning Star, Akosombo International and the likes.

Such persons think that the free SHS should be targeted at poorer children or should focus only on day students and not boarders.

My friend Nana Agyeman Agyeman-Asante argues that, parents who take their children to boarding, should bear the cost themselves to reduce the financial stress on government.

But on the matter of affluent parents, I do not agree with the proponents because in reality, the rich citizens pay  more taxes than the poor, and so why should they or their children be denied the benefits that accrue from our collective taxes?

And on this argument, I found an interesting response from Nana Yaw Atakora Mensah who commented on a post on my Facebook wall.

Nana Yaw Atakora Mensah  lives in the United Kingdom, and this is what he said; “If David Beckham decides to enroll his kids in public school it will be free for him same as my children enjoy it for free. But Beckham can afford to build a whole school for the community. When something is free for the country it doesn’t matter your financial status. That itself is discrimination. It’s the child that benefits from the country not his parents’ financial status. Also, even child benefit are enjoyed by everyone even if your dad is Richard Branson. The idea is that, society must benefit from it without discrimination. It is not anybody’s fault that some are rich and others are poor. There will be opportunities for those rich people to enroll their kids into private schools leaving space for others to have opportunity to go the public school.”

Some critics of the  free SHS policy are also concerned about what will become of the quality of Senior High School education when the policy is implemented.

Indeed, all these points are valid and must be thoroughly deliberated upon. I hope and pray that the government will take all these concerns into account, and hold the necessary stakeholder meetings to address these likely bottlenecks before take-off.

If it must be done, then it must be done well.
–
By: Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie/citifmonline.com/Ghana

Email: enadadzie@gmail.com/Ghana

The Writer is a Broadcast Journalist with Citi FM. The views hereby expressed in this article are his personal opinions, and do not reflect in any form or shape, those of Citi FM.

Policy Think Tank, IMANI Ghana has opined that the much hyped free Senior High School policy by the New Patriotic Party is likely to face some setbacks.

This according to Head of Economics at IMANI, Patrick Stephenson is because of the current economic conditions in the country.

But speaking to Citi News, Mr. Stephenson challenged government to declare the source of funding for the project.

“The way we had talked about the whole free senior higher education and how it’s going to be implemented, the idea itself may not be a problem, but how we should treat it within the structure of the educational system as we speak today so that the targeted persons get to benefit. I think that’s been the problem to the extent that we have not seen sufficient clarity from the current government is making it very difficult to appreciate what the intended objectives are,” he explained.

Free SHS to begin in September
President Akufo-Addo has assured that his government will fully implement the free SHS policy from September 2017.

According to him the implementation of the policy will cover the full fees of students who attend public Senior High Schools in the country.

President Akufo-Addo said the policy will ensure that Ghanaians who qualify for SHS are not burdened with financial difficulties.

“By free SHS, we mean that, in addition to tuition which is already free, there will be no admission fees, no library fees, no science centre fees, no computer lab fees, no examination fees, no utility fees; there will be free textbooks, free boarding and free meals, and day students will get a meal at school for free,” the president clarified.

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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana

A provision of GH¢55 million has been made in the 2017 budget for the payment of book and research allowances of lecturers of public universities, the Minister of Education, Dr Matthew Opoku-Prempeh, has revealed.

In addition, plans are in place for the establishment of a research fund to enhance academic research in the various universities.

“Government will pay book and research allowance and in addition establish a research fund,” he stated.

The speech was read on his behalf by the Director of Tertiary Education of the Ministry of Education, Mr Cephas Adjei-Mensah.

A total of 1,684 students were awarded with Bachekor of Technology (B.Tech) in Building Technology and Computerised Accounting, and Higher National Diploma (HND) in Engineering, Business and Management Studies, and Applied Science and Technology.

Utilities

Dr Opoku-Prempeh stated that the government remained committed to abolishing the payment of utilities in educational institutions by students.

He said the government was aware of the disconnections by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) in public tertiary institutions.

Dr Opoku-Prempeh explained that the Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) and tertiary institutions, would enter into special negotiations with the utility companies to find lasting solutions to the problem.

Technical universities

He stated that technical universities were meant to position technical vocational education as a driver of the country’s economic prospects.

“Government remains committed to technical and vocational education as it will be the bedrock of its One-District-One-Factory initiative”.

He gave an assurance that the government would assist the Wa and Bolgatanga Polytechnics to be converted into technical university status.

Dr Opoku-Prempeh expressed worry about the gap between academia and industry, which, according to him, remains an issue of public interest.

He, therefore, gave an assurance that he would do his best to engage captains of industry to foster the right partnership to create jobs for the teeming youth and graduates.

Embargo on employment

The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Adinkrah-Appiah, implored the government to give the university financial clearance for the employment of new members of staff to replace retired staff and faculty members.

He explained that the employment of new staff would enable the university to have the required human resource capacity to handle existing and new programmes.

“This request is critical, since we could not obtain clearance for a single faculty/staff for the 2015/16 academic year although many of them exited from the university due to retirement, resignation or passing on to eternity,” he indicated.

Prof. Adinkrah-Appiah appealed to the government to ensure that the Sunyani Technical University received its a share of the AMATROL Equipment Supply to retool its Engineering/Technical workshops and laboratories.

–

Source: Graphic Online

1,393 pupils across the country are taking part in this year’s private Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).

The number includes candidates who are rewriting the examination because they did not perform well in specific subjects, as well as those desirous to further their education, and are therefore writing the examination for the first time.

The Public relations Officer of WAEC, Agnes Teye Cudjoe, in an interview with Citi News, urged the candidates to observe all examination rules and avoid engaging in malpractices.

She said, “We’ll urge all of them to adhere to the rules and to do whatever it is that is expected of them. They should be sure that if they adhere to all the rules they can pass the examination.”

She added that, “we have 1,393 candidates and they are writing in 10 centres. One centre in each of the regional capital. I went to our centre at Asare-Manako hall at cantonments and the exams started on time at 9:00am. They were taking English language paper and they will be writing the Religious and Moral Education paper in the afternoon.”

“So far everything is going on well. The exams will end on Friday with ICT. We will say that it is a good thing that we have done because it is giving candidates who are also a bit older an opportunity to write the examination and further their education.”

‘Why private BECE became necessary’

The Ghana Education Service (GES) revealed after a research that only about 60 percent of students who write the BECE make it into Senior High Schools.

The others, it said, either go into informal vocational or technical training or learn a trade or just give up education entirely.

There have been calls by various analysts and educational organizations to revise the educational system to give students at the basic education a second opportunity to write their examination if they fail the first time, as it is for the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

The call was accepted and that led to the introduction of the private BECE in 2015.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @jnyabor

A former Deputy Minister of Education, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has said the massive improvement in educational infrastructure by the previous NDC government, will facilitate the new government’s plan to roll out the free Senior High School (SHS) programme.

According to him, the Mahama administration invested millions of dollars in expanding infrastructure in the education sector, paving the way for the current government to implement the policy.

“Now with President Mahama’s community based schools and with the Secondary education programme, which the World Bank supported with 156 million dollars, a very solid foundation has been laid for a take-off. Article 25 says secondary education should be progressively free, and that is what we implemented. We were only satisfying what the constitution says because the framers of the constitution were aware of the challenges confronting secondary education.”

Gov’t must focus on quality 

“Now looking at all the investments that have been made, I will say that now you can begin talking about improving on the progressively free secondary education programme. However, the word of caution is that, it is important for us to see that the programme of action is on quality, because they must not abandon President Mahama’s quality and access initiatives as we introduce Free SHS . If we do that, then we run the risk of destroying secondary education because public secondary schools do better. Your Grade A schools do better, so it is important that we maintain this tradition. We should be guided by how public basic education slipped.”

GNAT welcomes free SHS

Meanwhile the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), has asked government to ensure the timely release of funds for the implementation.

Speaking to Citi News, the General Secretary of (GNAT), David Ofori Acheampong, while endorsing the initiative, said government must ensure that there is a reliable source of funding for the programme.

“We have to look at the budget. Look at what budget we have to bear as a nation  to carry that programme through and clear source of funding for that project. The policy should address timeous release of resources because if we are not going to commit parents to any of the monies that they have paid over the years and government is going to take that responsibility then  there must be timeous release of resources.”

Free SHS to begin in September

President Akufo-Addo has assured that his government will fully implement the free SHS policy from September 2017.

The policy is expected to ensure that Ghanaians who qualify for SHS are not burdened with financial difficulties.

“By free SHS, we mean that, in addition to tuition which is already free, there will be no admission fees, no library fees, no science centre fees, no computer lab fees, no examination fees, no utility fees; there will be free textbooks, free boarding and free meals, and day students will get a meal at school for free,” the president clarified.

NDC’s opposition to Free SHS 

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) ahead of the 2012 election, was largely opposed to Nana Addo’s free SHS idea saying it was impossible.

But in a rather surprising manner, the NDC after winning election 2012 with John Mahama as President,  turned around to endorse the policy at the latter part of their 4-year tenure, calling it ‘progressive free SHS’.

–

By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah

The Ambassadors of China and Finland on Monday paid courtesy calls on Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh, the Minister of Education at his office in Accra.

Ms Sun Baohong, the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, expressed China’s commitment to support the new initiatives of the Government to upgrade the vocational training facilities of the country.

Ms Baohong said China and Ghana had over the past years experienced excellent corporation and had undertaken several projects to enhance education in Ghana.

She was hopeful that Ghana and China would continue to strengthen the long-standing ties between the two countries.

Dr Prempeh commended China for their enormous support adding; “we are looking forward to a fruitful engagement in the next few years with the people of China. They have been very cooperative, extremely generous and we hope that they continue to build the corporation with the developing countries.

On her part Ms Pijro Suomela-Chowdhury, the Finland Ambassador to Nigeria, who also paid a courtesy call on the Minister, said Finland was committed to strengthening its bilateral relations with Ghana.

She said Finland would assist in the training of teachers, vocational educational and in other segments of education in Ghana.

Ms Suomela-Chowdhury said the Finland Government had launched the Africa project in Accra, which aimed to build capacities in computer coding, which would also assist girls in technology and computer training.

The Minister in a response thanked his guest for the visit and assured the Ambassador of materialising the corporation and areas of interest to tangible projects and programmes.

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Source: GNA

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) government has hinted of plans to review the Petroleum Management Act to allow for the use of the Heritage Fund to finance its ambitious Free Senior High School (SHS) policy.

The Senior minister, Minister Yaw Osafo Maafo, at a forum in Accra yesterday said the Heritage Fund which receives nine percent of the country’s annual petroleum revenue will be used to sustain the program.

“We have to make an amendment to say that X percent of the heritage fund, or the petroleum fund will be used to support second cycle education. If we think that industry require a certain stimulus that will enable jobs to be created and you are creating a job to build Ghana. You can look at it and put in a certain amount. We are [also] looking at agriculture.”

“Whatever is important to support the future development of this country. Particularly when you talk about the youth. The youth is the future, heritage is the youth, we would make certain relevant amendments to make sure that the economy benefits from the petroleum act,” Osafo Maafo said.

President Akufo Addo over the weekend announced that government will fully implement the free Senior High School (SHS) policy from the  2017/2018 academic year which starts this September.

The policy has been his party’s long-time campaign promise to  Ghanaians to increase access to education in the country.

But following the announcement, some analysts are questioning the government on where it will source funding for the ambitious program is reported to cost the country GH¢3.6 billion every year.

Policy think-tank, IMANI Ghana recently stated that the policy is likely to face some setbacks due to the country’s current economic condition.

–

By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @jnyabor

The government of Finland has partnered with Nokia and the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) to launch the Africa Codebus training program for young children in some selected schools in Accra.

The 4-day training event, which is currently underway at MEST is geared towards training the young pupils in internet coding and other adventures in Technology.

She said it was of great delight to hold the program in Ghana considering the “very good relations” between the two countries.

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According to her, she has been engaging the Minister of Education Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh on some potential areas of cooperation between the two countries in that area.

She also lauded the minister for his commitment towards promoting quality education in Ghana.

“This project is part of Finland’s 100-anniversary celebration, Finland became an Independent Nation in 1917, so this year we are 100 years old, so we are organizing in celebration in Finland and all over the world… Our main anniversary year activity in Ghana is Codebus Africa, this is a project that is Africa-wide and I’m really happy that we can launch it in Ghana. Finland and Ghana have very good relations.”

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She added that, “I had a discussion yesterday with the new Ghanaian Education minister and we spoke about many potential areas of cooperation. He is clearly extremely committed to promoting quality education in Ghana and we discussed many areas where there could be potential for cooperation in education like teacher training or vocational education; these are both areas where in Finland, we put a lot of emphasis on.”

The Head of Operations at MEST, Celine Duros explained, that Mest Africa, as a training platform for aspiring software entrepreneurs was excited at the opportunity to host the 4-day training aimed at raising awareness about the opportunities for kids.

She also revealed that MEST was exploring the possibility of partnering the ministry of Education to expand the project to cater for a lot more Ghanaian pupils.

“We [MEST] are a training platform for aspiring software entrepreneurs, so basically we train people how to code on a daily basis so that they can build their companies, wealth and jobs… We are raising awareness for about the opportunities for the kids, especially the girls; we have put a lot of effort in ensuring we have a 50-50 female, male representation.”

Nokia’s African Regional Communications Manager, Riham Khairy also told Citi News that the company wanted to promote the use of technology on the continent especially among girls.

–

By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @jnyabor

About 37 students of the Kumasi Technical Institute (KTI) have been detained after clashes with the Police.

The students are said to have blocked roads in a jubilant mood on Tuesday [February 14, 2017] after placing third in the Inter-schools sports competition at the Kumasi Sports Stadium.

They blocked the road from the Amakom roundabout to their school, causing heavy vehicular traffic and inconvenience for motorists.

Citi News gathers that the Police fired gunshots and tear gas to disperse the angry students who were said to have resisted the Police attempt to calm the situation by pelting stones.

While some have been treated and discharged, 16 of them are still on admission, mostly with deep cuts on the eye, in the ribs, thighs.

Speaking to Citi News, the Principal of the school, Dr Joseph Abeiku Apreh termed the incident as “unfortunate” and said that the school authorities will assist the police with investigations into the matter.

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“The unfortunate thing is that no bad person will misbehave and come to the school. Often times these are people who have completed school. However, those in the hospital are being attended to. We will also follow up to the police stations to find out those out about those who have been arrested”

Meanwhile, the Minister of Education, Matthew Opoku Prempeh, who visited the school earlier today [Wednesday] indicated that although he had seen live and rubber bullets on the school campus, he could not outrightly condemn actions of the police nor the students.

“I haven’t made up my mind yet. I’m going to listen to the side of the police. I just feel something has gone on that is untoward. We have to get to the bottom and learn lessons out of it. I have asked the students to remain calm, we will visit those who have been injured by the police actions and we will take it from there.”

Teaching and learning activities at the institute have since been halted following the investigations.

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By: Zoe Abu-Baidoo/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @Zbaidoo

The Deputy Minority Leader, James Klutse Avedzi believes using the Heritage Fund component in the Petroleum Management Act to fund some policies, only six years after it was set up, could compromise the fund.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) government has hinted of reviewing the Petroleum Management Act to allow for the use of the Heritage Fund to finance its ambitious Free Senior High School (SHS) policy.

The fund was set up to support the country’s future generations when the oil reserves are depleted. Nine percent of the country’s annual petroleum revenue is paid into the fund.

However similar proposals were made by the previous National Democratic Congress administration and fiercely opposed by the NPP as noted by the Deputy Minority Leader, James Klutse Avedzi spoke on the Citi Breakfast Show.

“This is a government that says it has the men. This is a government that says it has the solution. Not knowing their mind was on the Heritage Fund without telling Ghanaians that when they come to power, all promises were going to fall on the fund that has been built up for the following generations. So I am completely confused about what it is. I don’t think that it is a proper thing because when the General Secretary of the NDC said we should us that fund, they were the same people that were up in arms against that proposal.”

Mr. Avedzi wondered further if the NPP were against the NDC’s proposal to use the Heritage Fund because they held the fund “as their hope in fulfilling their campaign promises. That was why they were against it.”

“You are in power for less than two months and you are falling on the fund that has been put together for the future generations which was done by the NDC government who was thinking about this government, but you want to destroy it as this early stage.”

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

Policy think tank, IMANI Ghana, will be launching a tracker for government’s free Senior High School policy christened EQUINOX.

A statement from the think tank explained that, EQUINOX is a unified gauge with composite indicators that would assess the implementation of the free SHS policy.

IMANI in its statement noted that, government has decided to opt for a model of implementation of the free SHS that relies on expanded government subvention, fees abolishment and general taxation.

The Minister of Education has announced the 2017/2018 academic year as the start of the policy, and a budget of $800 million for implementation, though IMANI says it is not clear if the $800 million is additional money or the aggregate Senior High School (SHS) budget once the roll-out commences.

The think tank however assumes the Education Minister was referring to the total SHS budget currently at $330 million, whilst noting that government’s enrollment projections are over-optimistic

“It is not clear if this is additional money or the aggregate Senior High School (SHS) budget once the roll-out commences. We will assume that he is referring to the size of the total SHS budget (currently at $330 million) in the 2017/2018 academic year, as a result of the program’s commencement.”

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Matthew Opoku Prempeh, Minister of Education

“His enrolment projections seem however over-optimistic. He appears to believe that an additional 800,000 students can be added to the secondary education population within a year of program launch. This is both arithmetically and analytically difficult to understand.”

IMANI also expressed some skepticism that a bulk of the funding would go into administrative overheads rather than into direct investments into school budgets.

“If current enrollment rates of 65% at the secondary level are credible, then it is unlikely that additional numbers exceeding 400,000 new students can be recorded in the medium-term. This underscores our suspicion that a good deal of the funding for this project will go to administrative overheads rather than into direct investments into school budgets. The Minister’s numbers appear to indicate an administrative budget of more than $400 million. This is the only conclusion to draw as his numerical projections are suspicious,” the statement noted.

Find below IMANI’s statement

IMANI to Launch Tracker for “Free SHS” called EQUINOX-

Expanding Quality, Inclusion & New Opportunities in Education

A raging debate over the feasibility and funding of Ghana’s secondary education has reached its zenith with the announcement of expanded subsidies for almost every fee-paying item on the high school menu by the state, in fulfilment of a political campaign promise by the new government. The campaign promise is famously known as “Free Senior High School’’ or “Free SHS’’.

There is a fair amount of consensus in Ghana today for the first 12 years of education to be guaranteed for every child of school-going age.

There is at the same time widespread concern about educational outcomes. Many objective international measures suggest that academic performance, aptitude development and skills acquisition are either stagnant of falling.

Every major section of the political elite has committed to addressing these problems as a matter of urgency.

What is less apparent on the surface of the debates and discussions is that both expanding access and enhancing outcomes depend on an injection of more resources in addition to structural reforms, especially in the area of supervision and accountability. It appears even less evident that the public appreciates the significant diversity among models used worldwide for this two-prong approach of fixing access and quality outcomes synergistically.

The ruling NPP government has decided to opt for a model that relies on expanded government subvention, fees abolishment and general taxation.

The Minister of Education has announced a September 2017 timeline and a budget of $800 million for implementation. It is not clear if this is additional money or the aggregate Senior High School (SHS) budget once the rollout commences.

We will assume that he is referring to the size of the total SHS budget (currently at ~$330 million) in the 2017/2018 academic year as a result of the program’s commencement. His enrolment projections seem however over-optimistic. He appears to believe that an additional 800,000 students can be added to the secondary education population within a year of program launch. This is both arithmetically and analytically difficult to understand.

If current enrolment rates of 65% at secondary level are credible, then it is unlikely that additional numbers exceeding 400,000 new students can be recorded in the medium-term. This underscores our suspicion that a good deal of the funding for this project will go to administrative overheads rather than into direct investments into school budgets. The Minister’s numbers appear to indicate an administrative budget of more than $400 million. This is the only conclusion to draw as his numerical projections are suspect.

Even from this brief discussion it is clear that there is still considerable confusion about the underlying statistics and operational methodology, not to even talk of conceptual coherence, as far as the government’s choice of universal, effective, SHS is concerned.

That is why IMANI is announcing the launch of a new Tracker for what has popularly, even if also erroneously, come to be known as ‘FREE SHS’.

The Tracker shall be known as EQUINOX- Expanding Quality, Inclusion & New Opportunities in Education

EQUINOX is a unified gauge with composite indicators. These indicators include ‘enrolment trajectory’, ‘per capita. spending’, ‘per capita spending efficiency’, ‘assessment metrics’, ‘resource disbursement schedules’, and ‘resource availability metrics’.

We are very much aware that mixing qualitative and quantitative metrics to obtain standardised ratings can be both difficult and problematic, but we have assembled methodology that shall be validated during the baseline studies we are commencing. The other methodological concern is frequency of reporting, to the extent that this depends on the ‘movement’, ‘volatility’ or ‘periodicity’ of the core indicators. If changes in status cannot be measured at fairly frequent intervals, regular reporting becomes useless, and public interest, and even confidence, can wane.

Yet, some important features of public education change much too slowly to generate the kind of movement in indicator measurements necessary to sustain public interest and therefore to advance advocacy goals. For example, changes in enrolment figures can only be detected at the onset of the academic year. Thus, a quarterly publishing period will not show any significant movement on that score.

Of course, the punctuality of resource disbursement can be measured from trimester to trimester, which is as close to quarterly as possible.

Satisfaction level surveys can be stubbornly qualitative, with a high degree of subjectivity, raising serious concerns about such the impact of such major fault lines in our politics and society such as the rural-urban divide, the NPP-NDC geographic ‘stronghold’ effect, and philosophical issues about ‘citizen expectations’ in a patronage-based political system.

Our current conviction on ‘periodicity’ is that ‘continuous’ exhibition of the results in real-time and a regulated amount of ‘crowdsourcing’ to garner input from the public would be essential, rather than damaging, to the integrity of the Tracker.

We already have some software architectural ideas in mind, though our intention is to start with rather simple database designs and easy-going user interfaces so as not to overcomplicate the project. The chance to combine participation, accountability and content depth in one strategy is however too tempting not to give the idea our fullest attention.

We have taken these and many more factors in mind. The inception report we aim to publish in due course with provisional results from our baseline studies shall shed more light on how EQUINOX shall resolve the challenges of measurement, standardisation, and integrity.

IMANI does not aim to go alone in this massive effort. Serious steps are being made to establish a multi-stakeholder program within, across, and beyond Ghanaian civil society in recognition of the deep national character of this intervention.

The hope is that many of our readers, supporters, and friends shall reach out enthusiastically to share ideas and offer suggestions for the success of this endeavour.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The Minister of Education, Matthew Opoku Prempeh has urged students of the Kumasi Technical Institute (KTI), to remain calm as investigations into a recent clash with the Police is conducted.

He also said persons found culpable in the violent incident will be dealt with.

The Police subsequently fired gunshots and tear gas to disperse them after they resisted attempts by the Police to calm the situation.

Addressing students of the Institute on his visit days after the incident, the minister said, “whatever it is, an investigation should be conducted. We should come to the root of what actually happened and what caused all this. If anyone is found the person should be punished. So I’ll plead with the student body to exercise extreme patience, don’t try and take the low into your hands. Don’t try and organize any demonstration now. We are dealing a  group of people in the service with enormous powers so we have to be smart to get our case across.”

He added that, “from time immemorial, students have gone to the stadium for games and there have been incidents; but I don’t remember the last time live bullets were used on students. I could have said nothing if tear gas was used on the mob or if hot water was used. But to get to KTI campus and fire live bullets is something else.”

About 45 students were left hospitalized after the incident last Tuesday [February 14, 2017], with 37 of them also detained by the police.

The Principal of the school, Dr. Joseph Abeiku Apreh, in a Citi News interview termed the incident as “unfortunate” and said that the school authorities will assist the police with investigations into the matter.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @jnyabor

Senior lecturers and staff at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), are on strike. They have resolved to stay out of the lecture halls and other offices until a substantive Deputy Rector is elected.

A convocation to elect a Deputy Rector today [Thursday], was called off by the acting Registrar, Julius Atikpui, who explained in a letter that the decision was reached in consultation with the Ministry of Education, and the National Council for Tertiary Education.

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However, the staff believe the decision to cancel the convocation is a deliberate one to frustrate the process, hence the notice of a strike.

According to a mail sent to all staff members and seen by Citi News, “the decision to strike arose from the failure by GIMPA Management to conform to a key element of voting to elect a Deputy Rector today as provided within the road map of 31st January, 2017.”

It further added that,“the behaviour by Management is contrary to the advice of the lawyers.”

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The letter also asked staff members to be bold and resilient in the decision taken.

“Please be bold and conform to this directive. This applies to both administrative, teaching and supporting staff. The strike action will remain in force until we have a satisfactory resolution; a Deputy Rector is elected.”

Meanwhile, some students of the institution have expressed worry about the latest development.
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By: Felicia Osei/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), is upset with the Minister of Education, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh’s warning that basic and second cycle school heads, who oversee failure rates of 90 percent and above will be sacked.

According to the Education Minister, who was addressing heads of high schools in Kumasi, head-teachers would have to justify their continued stay accounting to the Ghana Education Service (GES) if they superintend poor examination results.

“We don’t think it is appropriate. I believe that there are so many problems confronting education in Ghana so if you come, I think the best thing is for us to have a consultative meeting. Let us discuss the challenges and see how we can resolve the problems.”

Mr. Acheampong also suggested that, it would be unfair to lay the blame for the failure rate of schools at the feet of head-teachers.

“I don’t know who gave him advice on this particular matter, but I think that if you want to trace the challenges and problems that have resulted in the low performance of some of our students, we cannot lay it wholly on the doorsteps of the teachers.”

“The very people who you are going to work with, the very people who are going to support you are the people you are threatening without even giving them a hearing, it is not proper,” Mr. Acheampong asserted.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

I know the sensitivity that is attached to this policy when you mention it. I know how far people are willing to go to defend or tear it apart. That is expected of a change.

Before you kick the hell out of me, please permit me to play the role society has tasked journalists like myself to play for the collective good of us all, when matters like this comes up for discussion.

Personally, I have had my reservations about the promise of a free Senior High education in Ghana since 2012. In my view, the free part of the policy is possible because, no one thought Ghana could be paying 275 MPs over Gh10, 000 each every month and fuel their cars and give them plush accommodation 20 years back.

It would have been met with similar criticism like we are doing to the Free SHS policy. So it is possible if we are committed to doing it. After all, if the taxpayer is able to give such luxuries to politicians, why can’t he do same for himself and his children? That is it, the free is possible!

However, I believe the free should not be for the general Senior High Schools. Please, before you squeeze the hell out of me, hear my submissions first, followed by the numbers.

It is a fact that, many graduates are jobless, or are doing what they did not ideally wish, after going through the SHS system and through to the universities. As a matter of fact, it is this form of education that has produced the many graduates who are said to be unemployed, or unemployable. unemployed graduates we call them.

That said, I thought anyone wanting to help these unemployed graduates, or wanting to end this trend will equip these graduates with hands-on skills readily needed by the job market or employers, or help them become entrepreneurs after school. Like I said, the current school system is a culprit of the situation.

Fast-forward it to the 2016 NPP manifesto, and you see an industrialized Ghana clearly pictured. How do you industrialize? You need people who will envision the industrialization dream, [strategic thinkers produced in the universities, and then give the plan to people with sharp hands-on skill for implementation, [the technical people]. It’s a natural order!

But people produced from the universities we are told are overly produced in view of employment avenues. They are not getting the jobs! They are unemployed graduates.

How about the technical people? Can the same story be told of them? The answer is no! They are not that many in our country. In fact, we have seen many contracts going to foreigners due to lack of capacity. 60 years on, we have no contractors with expertise and finance to build interchanges! Think of any mega-structure you see around you. They are all built by Chinese and the rest of them.

Clearly, we need more technical hands with technical and financial abilities to facilitate the industrialization dream than opening the floodgates to people to the universities.

You can argue that Nana Addo said that vocational and technical students are going to benefit from the free policy, but consider this; even when it was not free, people saw it more lucrative to go through the general senior high school system than the technical schools.

Now that both are free, imagine the number of parents who would want their children to go through the general SHS system. Do not be surprised people may even end up saying free technical school system is inferior!

But think of it. How many technical people do you see roaming on the streets for jobs like those who have completed universities? They are certainly in the minority.

We need to understand the link between the general SHS system and the technical schools. Few of those who go through the general SHS are needed to work on the salaries and insurance etc. or the welfare of the majority who will be doing the field jobs in a country that wants to industrialize.

Take a factory for example. More technical people are needed in the production chain than the fewer persons who will be working on the books. So why are we now going to open the floodgates to the fewer people we need?

It is for this reason that I saw former president John Dramani Mahama’s initiative of building 200 Community Senior High Schools as a misplaced priority! Complete misplaced priority! It got to a point he was concerned about how many has been built, but not how many were putting readily available skill into the Ghanaian youth. I thank God he didn’t complete them!

In view of the promised one district one factory programme, it is evident that we need people who are skillful in converting say cassava, coconut, cola sugarcane etc. into finished goods, depending on what the district is known for. That in my view is why we should spend time changing the mindset of parents towards technical education. It will help us reduce unemployment.

Picture this: Imagine if the monies for the 200 community SHS were used to build 50 21st century technical schools [5 in each region]. Then the funds for another 50 were used to buy modern laboratory equipment for the schools.

We could have produced whatever number of students who will not later become unemployed. The remaining funds for the 100 could have been used to build or upgrade laboratories in existing senior high schools to fit a 21st century facility. It’s not too late to do this though!

Now let’s check what the numbers say about the people we need the most at this time in our development and compare with senior high school records.

Senior High School

Senior high school enrollment in Ghana for the 2014/2015 academic year stood at 804,974 students, made up of 275,733 in SHS 1, 274,609 in SHS 2 and 254,632 students in SHS 3 in both public and private schools. These 804,974 students are taken care of by 39,597 teachers out of whom 6,180 are untrained.

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These students are studying agriculture, Business accounting and secretarial, General Science and Arts, Technical, Home economics and visual arts.

The numbers are Agriculture: 42,272, Business accounting: 121,155, Business secretarial: 3,708, General Science: 95,414, General Arts: 354,885, Technical: 24,907, Home Economics: 111,407, Visual Arts: 51,226.

Technical

Total number of students in school in the 2014/2015 academic year stood at 42,513. This number is 19 times lower than those in SHS.

Now, the shocking thing is the figures put out there by the Ghana Education Service on schools offering technical education at the secondary level.

For SHS, the number of schools increased from 840 in the 2013/2014 academic year to 863 in the 2014/2015 academic year. [Addition of 26 schools].

Sadly for technical schools, there was a reduction in the number of institutions. In the 2013/2014 academic year, there were 186 technical institutions. But it reduced to 185 in the 2014/2015 academic year. A reduction!

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So there are 863 schools for SHS, whilst technical schools have 185; difference of 678 schools.

Apart from the dwindling number of technical schools for a country that claim to industrialize, the condition of existing schools leaves much to be desired.

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So in my opinion, the free policy in education must happen because we can do it, but I think it is the technical institutions that must be given more priority than the general SHS system. I hope someone is reading.

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By: Obrempong Yaw Ampofo

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By: Obrempong Yaw Ampofo

Email: walkerjazzy23@gmail.com

This week, Ghanaians have been discussing an announcement by the government that free Senior High school education will begin in September of 2017.

The debate has largely been whether it should be free for all or that government must employ “targeting”, meaning only those who can’t genuinely pay for secondary education must be sponsored.

“By free SHS, we mean that in addition to tuition which is already free, there will be no admission fee, no library fee, no science centre fee, no computer lab fee, no examination fee, and no utility fee; there will be free text books, free boarding and free meals, and day students will get a meal at school for free,” President Akufo-Addo said.

Just before that debate settles, Senior Minister Osafo-Maafo has hinted that the government may want to finance the free education policy with a portion of Ghana’ oil revenue being kept for future generation. So, who are the future generation?

Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines future generation as the average span of time between the birth of parents and their children, so roughly we are looking at 30 years.

Ghana passed the Petroleum Revenue Management Act, 2011 (Act 815) into law in 2011. Literally speaking, those who qualify as the future generation will be any person born immediately after the bill was passed into law up to say 2041.

This is logic. But what does the law say?

Section 10 (2) of Act 815 provides;

“The object the Ghana Heritage Fund is to;

(a) Provide an endowment to support the development for future generations when the petroleum reserves have depleted; and

(b) Receive excess petroleum revenue.”

Now, section 10 (4), may interest you. It provides that;

“Despite section 20, Parliament may by a resolution supported by the votes of a majority of members of Parliament at intervals of fifteen years from the date of commencement of this Act, review the restriction on transfers from the Ghana Heritage Fund and authorise a transfer of a portion of the accrued interest on the Ghana Heritage Fund into any other fund established by or under this Act”.

Section 20 then states that;

“Within one year after petroleum reserves are depleted, the monies held in both the Ghana Stabilization Fund and Ghana Heritage Fund shall be consolidated into a single Fund to be known as the Ghana Petroleum Wealth Fund after which the Ghana Stabilization Fund and the Ghana Heritage Fund shall cease to exist”.

From the law, it is clear that the framers intended the heritage fund to operationalize ONLY after depletion of the petroleum reserves-more like an annuity.
How long will Ghana’s oil reserves last? 30 years? 40 years?

The then presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party-NPP and now President, Nana Akufo-Addo, on Thursday 3rd February, 2011, made the following statement in reaction to suggestions by the then ruling NDC to collateralise the oil revenue.

He said; “Ninth, the party supports the establishment of a Heritage Fund as proposed in the bill and encourages Parliament to provide the necessary precautions to ensure that its value is not eroded over time. It is important to remind ourselves that the principle underpinning the creation of a Heritage Fund is to provide for future generations whereas the principle of collateralisation is to “make hay while the sun shines” or “to have your lunch and dinner at breakfast”.

The two concepts are diametrically opposed. We believe that whatever resource we have as a nation should be sustainably utilised to allow future generations also to benefit.”

President Akufo-Addo succinctly laid down the underlying principle behind the Heritage Fund which is to allow future generation to benefit.

But, three years after the law came into operation, some Ghanaians thought that, it was an unwise decision to set funds aside for persons yet unborn-when the current generation who will “produce” the future are suffering.

The lead proponent was the General Secretary of the opposition NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia.

A Citi FM news portal in May 2014 read “Let’s ‘chop’ Heritage Fund now – Gen Mosquito”.

Mr. Asiedu Nketia suggested that the government can ease the economic plight of Ghanaians if it begins utilizing the fund.

“In this current situation that we find ourselves in, it doesn’t make economic sense to be keeping any money called Heritage Funds,” he explained.

He was sharply criticised for daring to suggest this. May be legitimately so. The fear the funds could be misappropriated was suggested by president of IMANI, Frankline Cudjoe.

A Facebook post of Mr. Cudjoe read “Actually, I agree with the NDC general secretary on the suggestion that we use our heritage oil fund to fix infrastructure gaps, something IMANI advised government to do 4 years ago, but will I trust the government to use the heritage fund prudently? Not in the face of how flagrantly it has abused the other oil receipts,” he pointed out.

Although some NPP members did disagree with Mr. Asiedu Nketia, the literature by some heavy weights in parliament suggested the contrary.

The current Minister for Planning for instance, was of the opinion that Ghana should not have established the heritage fund all together-“when you have a deficit in development…you don’t go and put some money, stash it in an account somewhere… and bureaucrats actually feed on that money. And when 30 years down the road, you go and then tell your grandson or your children that I have some money sitting in some account for you. Then they will ask you; ‘are you stupid?’ And you didn’t use that money to build the roads for us, you didn’t educate us…”

He went further to accuse the NDC of a cut and paste law which had “fallen flat on their face”.

He was of the view that changing the law which had not stood the test of time was unwise, as “its utility is destroyed from the word go”, he noted.

Another stalwart, Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei, now Minister for Monitoring and Evaluation, in 2014, also spoke against the state turning its attention to the Heritage Fund.
He suggested, the government should rather deal with corruption and will have enough money at its disposal.

Today, these two ministers must be in cabinet. It’s interesting to know what they make of the suggestion to turn to the Heritage Fund. It is even more interesting to know what President Akufo Addo makes of his stance in 2011.

When Asiedu Nketia first raised this issue, the sense was about whether we trust government to make judicious use of the funds in building infrastructure and fixing the economy, however small it is!

Do we still think that way now?

Do we think that funding education instead of say build roads is a more prudent way to use the fund?

The now, the future debate reminds me of Ghana’s pre- independence struggle- a clash of slogans – the CPP’s radical “Self-government now!” against the UGCC’s conservative “Self-government within the shortest possible time.”

In the end, the NOW won.

Ironically, the decendants of J.B. Danquah, who now champion NOW, and that of Kwame Nkrumah, who wants the future.
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By: Sammy Darko/Ghana

The writer is a Media Professional, Lecturer, Consultant and an educatee (Law), a former BBC Correspondent to Ghana.

Visit: www.sammydarko.com