Fact check: Some claims of Education sector in NPP 2020 Manifesto false and misleading
- YEN.com.gh fact checks some claims of NPP in the Education sector in their 2020 manifesto
- The NPP's claimed that they had done certain things in the sector but, they clearly had no hand in
- YEN.com.gh's checks indicate that some of the claims made by the NPP were false and misleading
Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in
As the December 2020 general elections gradually get near, political parties are doing their best to sell their policies to their electorates to guide them to make a decision on the d-day.
In selling these policies, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) launched its 2020 manifesto at an event at the University of Cape Coast on Saturday, August 22, 2020.
The manifesto detailed the policies, programmes, and projects the NPP government hopes to implement across different sectors if re-elected in the 2020 general elections.
Some of the claims the NPP made in their manifesto as some of their achievements in the educational sector, however, seem to be false and misleading
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Below are two of the infrastructure projects which YEN.com.gh has interrogated.
1. Claims that the National Technical, Vocational and Education Training (TVET) Qualification Framework was developed by the NPP is completely false.
In the 2016 manifesto of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the development of the NTVETQF was included in the achievement of that administration. This was confirmed by the Minister of Education, Mathew Opoku Prempeh, admitting that the NPP administration came to meet the NTVETQF, which he said had not being utilised.
2. Another claim the NPP made was that they have not only restored book and research allowance but they have increased it by 200%, but this has been countered as a very false claim.
The erstwhile NDC administration did not cancel the book and research allowance for the NPP to even think about restoring it.
In 2013, NDC announced that they would review the book and research allowance and replace it with the national research fund. The decision was opposed by UTAG and POTAG, which staged a number of strikes to register their displeasure.
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Despite the disagreements, the NDC in 2016, paid the book and research allowance for the 2015/2016 academic year. Then-president, Mahama said government had released GH¢37 million to the Controller and Accountant General’s Department to pay the book and research allowance, which was later confirmed by the then President of UTAG, Dr. Harry Agbanu.
On the claim about the increment of the book and research allowance by 200%, some senior lecturers and executives of UTAG revealed the government has only increased the research allowance (from GHC 500 to 1,500) and not the book allowance which still remains $1, 500.
Thus, the claim about the book allowance is false and the claim about increasing it in the way it is captured in the NPP manifesto is very misleading.
3. Also, the claim that the NPP administration has delivered Free TVET as part of the Free SHS policy is misleading.
In the 2017 budget statement (pg. 148), the finance minister, Ken Ofori Atta, announced the government’s plan of implementing a free Senior High School (SHS) programme which included technical and vocation institutions.
However, the free SHS programme only covers not the over 300 TVET institutions, but a few institutions in the country.
According to the National TVET advocacy team, only the 48 public TVET institutions which are managed under the Ministry of Education enjoy the free education policy.
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In other news, a pressure group calling itself the Coalition of Private School Teachers, Ghana (CPST-GH) has vowed to boycott the December 7 polls if schools do not reopen fully by September 22.
According to these private school teachers, they have not received any salary unlike their colleagues in the public schools since schools were closed down due to COVID-19.
In a statement sighted by YEN.com.gh issued and signed by the National President of the coalition, Nana Kwame Duodu, said most teachers in the private sector have been without salary for the past six months
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Source: YEN.com.gh
