Improving and maintaining a good health status of all Ghanaians is the surest way of building a healthy and prosperous nation. My government will thus continue to provide improved facilities and implement programs to improve the health status of all Ghanaians especially, at the primary care level. In this respect, we will expand the coverage and scope of immunization program for children. An intensified effort, activities and programs will be undertaken to contain the spread of HIV/AIDS. A more sustained, aggressive and efforts would be embarked upon and more resources channeled to fight and eliminate malaria and burreli ulcer from our country within a four-year period. We will work to expand the coverage of the national health insurance scheme program, especially in the rural areas to help reduce maternal mortality and other sicknesses.
Education Our primary objective will be to improve access to education as well as improve the quality of education for all Ghanaians. In pursuit of this, a thorough and comprehensive review of curriculum and co-curricular activities will be undertaken to ensure that our educational programmes provide (at the lowest level) a strong foundation for the development of core competencies and is relevant to our changing needs.
The teacher training curriculum will also be reviewed, to among others, improve subject content, enhance pedagogical skills and enable greater application of ICT in education. A major initiative will be decentralization of education to ensure greater control over curriculum and financing of education at the local level. District Assembly, traditional authority and parents involvement in all educational programmes will be enhanced. The first step in this process will be regional control over education at the pre-tertiary level.
At the tertiary level, to better respond to market and labour requirements and reduced skills mismatch, collaboration between industry and institutions if higher learning will be improved. New courses will be introduced in line with changing requirements of labour market. To improve employability of local graduates, the requirements for internship and industrial attachments would be made mandatory for all tertiary students.
Internship and attachment programmes would be redesigned inline with changing industrial requirements. A special presidential Advisory Council on Education and Training will be established to help guide policies and strategies relating to education and industrial training. Access to pre-school education will be expanded with the provision of more pre-school classes, particularly in rural areas.
Better facilities will be provided in the rural areas for primary and secondary education. More classrooms will be built to ensure the achievements of universal primary education. In addition, special programmes and incentives would be instituted to enhance the capacity of rural students to enroll and to acquire university education and enhanced skill training. To significantly improve the quality of our schools across the board we will undertake a major program that will ensure that y 2015 all teachers in all training colleges, secondary schools and at least 20 per cent of all teachers in primary schools would have first degree qualifications. At the regional level, we will work to ensure that within a year period each region has one well-financial, well-staffed university that will meet all international standards. In education, Ghana is increasingly being recognized within Africa especially, as a regional centre of excellence for tertiary education. Measures would be put in place to intensify our attractiveness as a regional centre for excellence in education. A major issue to wrestle with is the issue of financing tertiary education. While we are committed to a continuous yearly increase in of funding to the sector, additional source of funding would be required to provide resources to meet increasing and necessary demands of the sector. District Assemblies, traditional authorities, students, parents, the business community and NGOs in particular would all be encouraged to mobilize additional resources for the sector. Housing students will continue to be of concern to government. In this respect, we will work closely with the private sector and the traditional authorities by offering financial incentives to invest in construction of students housing and apartment.
Education has always been one of the highest priority sectors in our national development agenda. Yet education has not delivered on its promise as the prime mover of social-economic development and wealth creation. This is primarily because while the focus has been on increasing access, the emphasis on quality education has been minimal. Yet, the world has become a global village. The global knowledge economy is transforming the demands of the labour market and hence the type of education required in this age. We can only survive in this global village and its digital age by equipping our students with requisite skills to participate in the global knowledge economy. This means improving quality of education and the number of technical students. The number one cause of poor performance in the basic education is poor supervision. One of the first measures I will take as President will be to revamp and resource the Inspectorate division of the Ghana Education Service to enable them to properly supervise teachers. Administrative bottlenecks that delay sanctioning and dismissals of non-performing and problem teachers will be immediately removed. Latest statistics show that only 55% of those leaving in Junior High Schools are able to continue on in Senior Secondary Schools. And less than 30% percent of these are able to enter Tertiary Institutions. This is a massive waste of human resources. In order to increase access to Senior Secondary School, more schools would be constructed with particular attention paid to females and children from poor and rural backgrounds. The establishment of more private schools would be encouraged and supported. Ghana?s Senior Secondary School system is skewed towards grammar education and not technical education. This results in inadequate production of technical skills for industry.
My government will change this Over a period of four years, I will establish at least one Technical Institute in each district. Teaching in Ghanaian schools put emphasis on remembering facts and basic data. We will replace it with education that stimulates thinking, creativity and analytical skills geared towards problem solving. To ensure equitable access and regional balance, new first class Universities will be built in regions without public Universities by the end of my first term of office. The teacher training curriculum will be reviewed to among others improve subject, content, and to enable greater application of ICT in education. We will also undertake a major program to improve quality of education. In this respect, we will work to ensure that by 2015 all teachers in all Training Colleges, Senior Secondary Schools, and at least 20% of all teachers in Primary Schools would have first year University degree. My government will expand Distance Education to increase access to quality education. Special programs and incentives would be instituted to enhance the capacity of rural students to enroll and to acquire Tertiary Education and enhance skills training. In education, Ghana is increasingly being recognized within Africa, as a regional center of excellence for tertiary education. Measures would be put in place to intensify our attractiveness as a regional center for excellence in education. Finally, accommodation for students will continue to be of concern to government. In this respect, we will work closely with the private sector and the traditional authorities by offering financial incentives to invest in construction of more students housing and apartments.
