In many democracies the concept of a politician who will say just about anything to get elected is a phenomenon which many voters are very familiar with. In Ghana the NPP’s promise of free secondary education as promulgated by Nana Akuffo Addo, the party’s flagbearer falls squarely into this category. Ghanaians both at home and around the world were dismayed when during an interview on BBC’s Hardtalk program; a few months ago Mr. Addo was unable to elaborate on how his free secondary school program will be implemented. He was unable to give an estimate of how much the program, a key feature in his campaign would cost annually. Indeed he was at the time unable to explain how the financing for his program will be achieved. In recent times the New Patriotic Party’s has indicated the policy would cost only $72 million, a figure which has proved so woefully inadequate and unrealistic in the light of a revelation from the current minister of education that the country has at least seven hundred and twenty thousand senior high school students. The arithmetic just doesn’t add up. Given the current population of Senior High School students, the NPP is by their estimate telling Ghanaians that it will cost only one hundred dollars per student to make their education absolutely free. But this is not the greatest weakness with NPP’s wild approach to education. The great secret about their promise is what they cut in order to even come near something close to their promise. Will they stop the NDC program of ensuring that all schools which have no buildings are afforded physical structures for schooling to take place? Most of these schools are in elementary education, so what is the true cost of NPP’s free education policy? Is it schemed to deprive many in basic education a fitting education, so they can make free secondary education to fewer Ghanaians? After all you cannot benefit from free secondary education if you do not have basic education. In recent times the NPP running mate has promised to build universities, the question is how do their numbers add up?
