The Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Education, Kwasi Kwarteng, has rebutted former President John Dramani Mahama’s allegations that the government is using free tablets for students to sway votes. Former President, John Mahama stated during a student forum at Wisconsin University in Accra that the policy aims to influence students turning 18 to vote for the NPP in December.
He stated that “you bring a new curriculum, the children have no textbooks in basic schools for the last four years and you think that giving pre-tertiary students tablets is more important. Of course, everybody knows the political expediency.”
“The pre-tertiary students are going to register in May because some of them are going to be 18 and above. Some are 18 already and they are going to be the ones voting. So this is a gift to entice them to vote for the current government. It’s a bribe for them to vote for this government but I mean the students do not exist in isolation. They live in households and families,” Mr Mahama added.
Kwasi Kwarteng addressing journalists in Accra on Thursday countered, stating that “I think that yes, politics largely has an impact on socioeconomic transformation and everything but I mean sometimes let’s be fair, let’s stand up to the occasion, let the whole world know that it is not everything that we have to play politics with it, particularly education.
“We have allowed ourselves and destroyed every gain that we chalked as a country with the politicisation and extreme politicisation of issues.
“Today every topic that we raise, if we talk about National Health Insurance, it is politicised, if you talk about taxation, it is politicised, If you talk about the strength of our cedi, it is politicised,” he lamented.
He emphasized the Ministry’s efforts to modernize education for the fourth industrial revolution, including the introduction of STEM education and digitization initiatives like deploying laptops to teachers in 2021. He stressed the importance of such initiatives beyond elections, citing efforts to modernize education across all levels, including basic schools.
“For some time now, the Ministry of Education has been repositioning Ghana’s education to meet what is happening in this fourth industrial revolution. And it is even more reason why even though the government has promised free SHS education, we have also gone beyond that to introduce STEM which is something that this government never promised.
“But with the fourth industrial revolution, it has become very relevant and we cannot just sweep that under the carpet. The digitisation concept is the conversation now, it is the order for the day. All over the world, countries that have been able to use education as the focal point to be able to turn their socio-economic fortunes have been through education.
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