Free PASCO for Students Must Be Abolished Dr Otchere AnkrahTells Presidential Aspirants

Coporate Governance Lecturer at the Central University, Dr. Benjamin Otchere-Ankrah has called on the various presidential candidates to delve deeper into the tenets of education as they seek to embark on educational reforms as captured in their manifestos.

Speaking on the topical issues captured in the manifestos of the two major political parties, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), concerning the education sector, Dr. Benjamin Otchere-Ankrah stated that, the reforms within the education sector should be explained explicitly to the better understanding of the ordinary Ghanaian.

In a panel discussion on Peace FM’s 'Kokrokoo' morning show on Friday, August 30, Dr. Otchere-Ankrah highlighted some of the reforms that should be implemented by whoever gets the mandate to lead the country as President after the December 7 general elections.

Some of the reforms Dr. Otchere-Ankrah wishes to be tackled is the Free Past questions given to students to study and pass their exams.

“I have suggested that the Free past questions given to students to study and pass exams is not a good thing and should be abolished. Education is not all about examination. The money invested in procuring the past questions should rather be given to teachers as incentives in order for them to work assiduously in grooming the students for a brighter a future,” he expressed.

He further opined that, the issuance of free tablets for students should be monitored and properly regulated in order to swerve the purpose for which they were given to the students.

“The free tablets given to students should be well regulated so that the students do not spend the whole time downloading and playing games at the expense of their studies. That will defeat the purpose for which the tablets were given,” he added.

Tackling the issue of the unavailability of textbooks within the public schools, Dr. Ankrah urged the presidential candidates to prioritise prompt delivery and disbursement of text books to the various schools so that the teacher and students could use them to facilitate teaching and learning.

He asserted that, there are sharp contrast in performance rate between basic public schools and basic private schools.

According to him, the private basic schools perform better than the public basic schools because, there is intense supervision within the private school system, as compared to that of the public schools.

He, therefore, called on the presidential candidates to work tirelessly on improving education in general in Ghana.Kobina Darlington/