The Ashanti Regional Office of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has expressed worry about the involvement of students in party politics by the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).
The NDC criticised the Education Minister Yaw Osei Adutwum and the officials of the Ghana Education Service (GES) for allowing students to abandon class to attend Dr Bawumia’s ‘Youth Connect’ event held at Kumasi Jubilee Park as part of the NPP flagbearer’s campaign tour of the Ashanti region.
Some school authorities reportedly bussed some senior high school students to the event.
The NDC therefore urged parents to stand up and speak against the involvement of their wards in political activities at the expense of their education.
Moreover, the main opposition party condemned the act, stressing that the Minister of Education “cannot be absolved from blame.”
Baah Acheamfour, the Deputy Ashanti Regional Secretary of the NDC, addressing the press in Kumasi indicated that the NPP used the students to “create a crowd effect” for Dr Bawumia’s sinking popularity in the Ashanti Region.
“One major feature of Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s tour was the bussing of students from various senior high schools to the Youth Connect programme at the Jubilee Park to create a crowd effect to show Bawumia’s sinking popularity in his own political stronghold.
“We find this development very worrying because it shows the desperate lengths the NPP is prepared to go to just to create an illusion of popularity. The law of the land does not allow partisan politics in our senior high schools.
“And so for the headmasters of these institutions to have released SHS students, some of whom are minors, to participate in this particular activity, at the time they are supposed to be in school is a cause to worry. And we all know that these students are preparing to write their WASSCE two or three months ahead of us.
“This indicates how low they are prepared to go to please their NPP collaborators. What is even more shocking is that all this happened right under the nose of the Minister of Education, Yaw Adutwum.”
“It is a shame that somebody like Dr. Yaw Adutwum who was brought in to introduce international best practices in our education sector will be the same person who is destroying our senior high schools with partisan politicisation.
“We are calling on parents to join forces with us to demand answers from CHASS and GES for exposing these wards to this needless political danger when school is supposed to be in session,” Mr Acheamfour stated.
Additionally, the NDC chastised Dr Bawumia for failing to fulfill a promise to reconstruct the burnt parts of the Kejetia Market, emphasising the neglect of the victims.
“Somewhere last year when Kejetia market was gutted by fire, Dr Bawumia visited them and promised to reconstruct the affected area in the shortest possible time.
“We wish to use this medium to ask him if that portion of the market has been fixed or is one of his usual awful and void promises given to Ghanaians,” the NDC stressed.
Source: 3news.com
