I'll make education compulsory - Nduom

The presidential candidate of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom says his government will make education compulsory if the PPP wins the December 7 elections.

He said that his party's policy for the education sector is what Ghana urgently needs to prepare the young generation adequately for the future.

Speaking at the presidential debate at the Banquet Hall of the State House organised by the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) in partnership with the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), in Accra, Wednesday, he said, "We have a fundamental problem in this country: Our children are not going to school... Every child in Ghana must go to school, that is very essential. The education we have is preparing our children for failure and preparing the country for disaster and poverty."

"It is all fine and good for us to talk about university education, high school education but we have a fundamental problem, our children are not going to school and we are not making them go to school," Dr. Nduom added.

"If we are we going to talk about technical education, we are going to talk about university education but my children are on the beach begging for fish in the streets that is the essential problem that we have."

"The solution as I have it is that we must start from the first level and ensure that we put that compulsory aspect there and anybody who will sit here or anywhere and say we must make it a compulsory matter for our children to go to school does not have the future of our children at heart."

Despite the formulation of the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) policy many years ago to ensure that every child is given equal access to education, successive governments have failed to implement it.

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Explaining why Ghana needed the FCUBE, Dr Nduom argued that compulsory education was key to empowering the citizenry and not free education or expanding access to educational facilities being promised by the New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress.

"The system does not prepare the children adequately for the challenges of the 21st century. The constitution talks about Free Compulsory Education but we have failed as a country to do that. Worldwide there is the compulsory aspect which every serious country implements but we have not. We need to get back to the basics and solve that before we can think about empowering them for jobs," he added.