The University of Cape Coast (UCC) branch of the Tertiary Education Information Network (TEIN) of the National Democratic Congress has described the free Senior High School (SHS) education being promised by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as "a mere political gimmick” intended to deceive the electorates to win their votes.
It said the Network was not against free education for all per se, but a critical look at the proposed policy by the NPP showed that if the government was made the sole financier of education it would affect quality and standards.
In a statement signed by Felix Horsu, Propaganda Secretary of the UCC TEIN and copied to the GNA, the Network accused the NPP of trying to mislead the people of Ghana with its non- feasible proposal to institute free SHS education.
It said such a proposal would automatically increase enrolment and this would put pressure on the already inadequate infrastructure of the schools, adding that the issue of infrastructure must be addressed to help achieve quality education.
It further stated that the free education being preached by the NPP was "a phantom policy which will not see the light of day" but was just to throw dust in the eyes of Ghanaians.
The statement said the NPP was desperate to win power and that the country's education was experiencing a huge teacher's deficit where in some schools the teacher student ratio is one is to 70.
"We want to put on record that we are not against free education" , the statement stressed but added that for it to be achieved all the bottlenecks facing the current educational system needed to be addressed in order not to discourage competition among students' desire to score high marks to get the best SHS to attend.