A Former Education Minister, Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang has said that the current turmoil on the country’s educational front could have been handled properly.
Speaking at a lecture organized by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to counter the town hall meeting by the Government, she said that, “If there’s turmoil in the education sector today, it is totally uncalled for.”
Meanwhile, Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang at the lecture used the opportunity to tout the NDC’s management of the education sector during her tenure.
According to her, the education sector under former President John Dramani Mahama recorded a superior performance compared with the current New Patriotic Party administration.
She said her administration worked in the interest of Ghanaians.
The Former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, however, explained that all of such initiatives introduced by the NDC were based on intensive research.
She cited the conversion of polytechnics to technical universities and the construction of the community day ‘E-Blocks’ senior high schools as examples.
“We looked at technical training, we picked 13 technical schools for upgrading and expansion…. it was based on research,”
“These E-blocks were designed with not only with the technocrats, we also asked the learners themselves, what schools they wanted to attend. Those who were attending day schools, what did they want to see? Those who attended days schools and had graduated, what did they want to see? We also did a survey of existing day schools in the country,” he explained.
On educational infrastructure, she also touted the erstwhile NDC government’s efforts in building two public universities; the University of Health and Allied Sciences, in Ho and the University of Energy and Natural Resources, Sunyani.
“Two new universities were constructed at Ho and at Sunyani. For the Sunyani one, because it was about energy and we were struggling with energy we were particularly interested in what we were doing. We were interested in ensuring that they got proper research funds.”
She also took a swipe at the Finance Ministry saying although her administration made some record-breaking initiatives, they did not organise “a party to celebrate it.”
Ghana | Atinkaonline.com
