By Jerry Azanduna
Techiman (BE/R), Aug. 13, GNA – A cross-section of Senior High School graduates in the Techiman Municipality have welcomed one of the proposed educational policies of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) with joy and excitement.
The flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr John Mahama had promised that all first-year tertiary students would not pay academic fees, his next government’s initiative to lessen the burden on parents financing the cost of their children’s education.
In a reaction, the students in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Techiman, the Bono East Regional capital described the proposed policy as laudable and hoped that it would not be a political gimmick.
For them, the implementation of the policy would create opportunities for more students to access tertiary education and develop themselves better.
“This is one of the best policies I have ever heard, and we pray that we will see the reality one day,” Miss Juanita Frimpong, a graduate who said she completed SHS in 2023, but left in the house because of financial difficulties stated.
“Every government must accept and implement such a policy so that those of us from poor homes will also access tertiary education and achieve our life career and aspirations”, she stated.
Ms Frimpong said she obtained aggregate 10 in the West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), and aspired to pursue medicine, however her dream seemed shattered because her parents could not afford to further her.
Another graduate, Mr Frank Adjei Mensah who said he was a 2021 product of the Techiman SHS, and now a taxi driver, had aggregate 14 in the WASSCE, but could not continue to further his education due to financial constraint.
“I had no choice but to abandon my education because the financial stress on my parents is too much. Now I am a cabbie, and I do the taxi business fend for my wife and two children,” he stated.
Madam Adjoa Nsowah, a mother of two, also said she graduated from SHS and had aggregate 18, but she could not further her education because of poverty, and she was forced into marriage.
“I am now a housewife. I am always ashamed when I see my class and school mates who are working in the formal sector,” Madam Nsowah stated, and believed the NDC policy would save many children from experiencing what she was going through now.
Meanwhile, some traders and vegetable sellers at the Techiman Central market also lauded the policy and added that it would lessen their economic burden and enabled them to provide tertiary education to their children.
For Serwaa Amani-Ampong, Maurine Tekpe, and Foriwaa Adongo all vegetable sellers, the NDC policy would give meaning to the implementation of the Free SHS programme too, saying many of the SHS graduates had become dropouts due to financial difficulties.
GNA