The flag bearer of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Edward Mahama, has said he will eliminate illiteracy in the country in five years if elected president in the 7 December election.
Speaking at a presidential debate organised by the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) and the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) in Accra on Wednesday, 30 November, Mr Mahama said the country’s current educational system needed to be overhauled.
“I’m prepared now, if given the presidency, to eradicate illiteracy in five years in Ghana,” he stated.
According to him, the current educational system did not prepare students to deal with the challenges of industry and national development.
To address the problem, he said an Edward Mahama-led PNC government would introduce at the Junior Secondary School and Senior High School levels a subject called critical thinking which will allow students to think for themselves.
Added to that, Dr Mahama also proposed the introduction of counsellors at the kindergarten, JHS, and SHS levels.
“I will introduce into JHS even kindergarten counsellors because I see a lot of young people, they come to me from the university, they want a job and you ask them: ‘What can you do?’ and they say anything, which means they haven’t actually thought about what they were going to do with the education they were going to get so [I’ll introduce] counsellors to counsel them at the early stage at all levels to guide them,” he stated.
Dr Mahama added that his government would also introduce a “portfolio of scholarships” in the form of presidential grants and loans, so that those who are highly intelligent and poor would be supported by government.
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
