Education is the heartbeat of Ghana’s future. It is the single most important investment in our youth, shaping whether they rise to global competitiveness or remain trapped in cycles of mediocrity. Over the past two decades, Ghana’s education system has been defined by two contrasting traditions: the New Patriotic Party (NPP), which has consistently expanded access and improved outcomes, and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), which has repeatedly reversed progress, leaving behind systemic failures.

Kufuor’s Vision: The Four-Year Senior High School

President John Agyekum Kufuor’s administration introduced the four-year Senior High School (SHS) system, a bold reform that gave students more time to absorb content and prepare for WAEC examinations.

• WAEC pass rates improved during the four-year cycle.
• Teachers reported reduced pressure and better preparedness among students.
• More students qualified for tertiary education, strengthening Ghana’s human capital base.

This was a reform rooted in foresight, prioritizing the long-term success of Ghanaian youth.

Mahama’s Reversal: Back to Three Years

President John Mahama’s government scrapped the four-year SHS, reverting to three years. The decision was driven more by political expediency than educational logic.

• Students were rushed through syllabi.
• WAEC failures increased, particularly in core subjects.
• Teachers expressed frustration at the collapse of standards.

Recent WAEC statistics underline the damage: in 2025, Core Mathematics pass rates dropped from 66.86% in 2024 to just 48.73%, while English fell from 66.98% to 56.76. These declines are not abstract numbers, they represent thousands of young lives disadvantaged by poor policy choices.

Akufo-Addo’s Free SHS and Teacher Allowances

President Nana Akufo-Addo’s Free SHS policy, launched in 2017, was a landmark reform. For the first time, financial barriers were removed, allowing every child to access secondary education.

• Over 5.7 million students have benefited since its inception.
• Enrollment surged nationwide, bridging the gap between rich and poor.
• Gender parity improved, giving girls equal opportunities in education.

Akufo-Addo also restored teacher trainee allowances, boosting morale and attracting more young people into the teaching profession. Motivated teachers translate into stronger classrooms and better student outcomes.

Mahama’s Attack on Teachers

Mahama’s government scrapped teacher trainee allowances, claiming fiscal unsustainability.

• Teacher morale collapsed.
• Fewer young people pursued teaching careers.
• Classrooms suffered from shortages and declining quality.

The correlation is undeniable: demoralized teachers + underprepared students = mass WAEC failures.

The Brutal Truth

The evidence is clear:

• NPP reforms (Kufuor’s four-year SHS, Akufo-Addo’s Free SHS and teacher allowances) expanded access, improved outcomes, and motivated teachers.
• NDC reversals under Mahama destroyed progress, fueled exam failures, and crippled Ghana’s education system.

Mahama’s tenure represents a dark chapter in Ghana’s education history. His policies prioritized politics over pedagogy, leaving Ghanaian youth disadvantaged in global competitiveness.

Final Word

If Ghana is serious about building a future of excellence, it must reject the destructive reversals of the NDC and protect the visionary reforms of the NPP. Education is not a playground for political experimentsit is the lifeline of our nation.

US President Joe Biden has revealed plans to expel Uganda, Gabon, Niger and the Central African Republic (CAR) from a special US-Africa trade program.

The countries were either involved in “gross violations” of human rights or not making progress towards democratic rule, the President stated. Burkina Faso, Mali, and Guinea have all previously been expelled from AGOA after military coups in those countries.

The US introduced the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) in 2000.

It gives eligible sub-Saharan African countries duty-free access to the US for more than 1,800 products.

President Biden said that Niger and Gabon – both of which are currently under military rule following coups this year – are ineligible for AGOA because they “have not established, or are not making continual progress toward establishing the protection of political pluralism and the rule of law”.

He also said that the removal of the CAR and Uganda from the program was due to “gross violations of internationally recognized human rights” by their governments.

In May, the US government had said it was considering removing Uganda from AGOA and introducing sanctions on the country after it passed a controversial anti-homosexuality law.

The law, which imposes a death penalty on people found guilty of engaging in certain same-sex acts, has faced global criticism.

“Despite intensive engagement between the United States and the Central African Republic, Gabon, Niger, and Uganda, these countries have failed to address United States concerns about their non-compliance with the AGOA eligibility criteria,” President Biden said on Monday, in a letter addressed to the speaker of the US House of Representatives.

The four countries are yet to react to the announcement, which comes just before South Africa is due to host the 20th AGOA forum from Thursday this week.

Their expulsion from AGOA is set to take effect from the start of next year and is likely to impact their economies, as AGOA has been credited with promoting exports, economic growth, and job creation among participating countries.

CAR is likely to be the least impacted by the AGOA expulsion, as it only recorded $881,000 (£722,300) in US exports in 2022, according to US government data.

The country, however, imported goods worth $23m from the US in the same year, creating a massive trade deficit between the two countries.

US data also show that Uganda exported goods worth $174m to the US last year, while Gabon and Niger recorded US exports of $220m and $73m respectively in the same period.

Last month, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said that several American companies had already stopped importing textiles – which fall under the Agoa trade deal – from Uganda because of the passing of the anti-homosexuality law.

“The homosexuals in the US are interfering with our export of textiles. Some of the orders have been canceled there,” Mr Museveni was quoted as saying by the privately owned Daily Monitor newspaper.

In August, Mr Museveni banned the importation of second-hand clothes, a move thought to target the US, which is a major supplier of used garments to Uganda and other African countries.

The threat to exclude Niger and Gabon from AGOA is the latest US government action against the two junta-led countries.

The US State Department announced last week that it had suspended most foreign aid to Gabon and would only resume assistance if Gabon’s transitional government establishes democratic rule.

In August, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a similar measure against Niger, saying that the US “is pausing certain foreign assistance programs benefitting the government of Niger”.

European lithium refiner Livista Energy said on Monday that it has formed a partnership with African miner CAA Mining to set up a conversion facility in Takoradi, western Ghana for the processing of lithium.

Livista aims to convert spodumene, a mineral with lithium content, produced in Ghana into an intermediary lithium chemical at the facility, which would then be exported to the company’s European plant for further refining.

Building local lithium refining capability in Ghana would provide employment opportunities and deliver new sources for the African country’s gross domestic product, said Martin Kwaku Ayisi, the chief executive of Minerals Commission Ghana.

Demand for lithium, a key component of electric vehicle batteries, has jumped in recent years as the world transitions towards green energy.

CAA had already been granted a license to mine in the area next to the Ewoyaa Lithium Deposit, currently in development by Atlantic Lithium Ltd.

When completed, the plant is expected to generate over $15bn. in revenue over its life span.

Livista’s European facility is expected to begin production in 2026.

I wanted to get a new SIM to complement the one I already have. Then I decided to patronise a road side sim vendor and the unexpected happened. 

During registration, I gave out the needed details to the vendor and the registration was going on smoothly until it got to capturing.

Usually, you are expected to be captured once but the vendor captured me twice and that made me suspicious. So I queried him but he gave a flimsy excuse.

Immediately after the registration, I got a welcome text message indicating I registered two numbers instead of one

I asked why two numbers registered in my name instead of one, the vendor said “it’s normal, that sometimes the issue is from the network operators”. 

The next day, I went to Glo office to lay a complain and the moment I mentioned what brought me, the manager there said

“these guys again? Why doing these to innocent people”?, that was when I realized the gravity of what just happened. The second number was deregistered, the case was reported and the guy was picked up.

Questioning the vendor, he said they usually use people’s details to register other sim cards which they resell to “car trackers” at a higher price. 

On further interrogation, he confessed that he uses people’s details to register sim cards which they sell to fraudsters, ritualists, kidnappers and he makes a lot of money from the business.

Now, imagine if he sold this second number to a kidnapper or a fraudster and when tracked, my picture and details would pop up and it would be difficult to deny.

I’m putting this out here because a lot of innocent people are in prisons today because of cr!me they know nothing about.

While doing your registration, please be attentive and report any suspicion to the right authority.

Thanks Let’s Be Guided Please.

I really admire the President and the NPP’s commitment to making secondary education free for all, and not be a hindrance for the poor or deprived. THIS IS SUPER GOOD.

But surely, we should run our free education in a way that helps the young people, the state and the economy as a whole.  Whilst lauding the opportunity for all to have secondary education, the few years of implementation points to several practical challenges – stifling the economy, collapsing private schools and  businesses and creating lots of hiccups in the smoothness we’ve known with our secondary education.  And this is why it surprises when the Government consistently insists on not ‘reviewing Free SHS’. 

Let me say, I pity the government for getting a bad name for what it does out of good intentions for the people of Ghana. 

But the sure fact is that good thought isn’t all that it takes to satisfy a people and prosper a nation. The good thought must be carried through a strategy of pragmatism, truthfulness and objectivity; otherwise this good intention would give the NPP more bad name – and I could predict that many parents who enjoyed the freedom from payments, and even the students who went through this free education, would vote against the NPP one day soon.

 And this is simply because, we asked our governments to get our children opportunity to experience secondary education. We never really asked them to give our children food for free! If they choose to do so, they may, but must do it effectively – not compromise the training and knowledge we asked for!

It’s surely best to give all qualified Ghanaians a chance to secondary education, but should free education mean ‘FREE FEEDING’? In the countries that we are often proud to mention as successful education and economies, FEEDING IS NEVER FREE. 

Rather, every opportunity is availed for qualified young persons

• to have admission into schools

• to have a good, reliable and consistent academic calendar 

• to have the best of all the needed facilities for teaching and learning generally for free

with teachers and other staff who are well motivated to teach and guide the students to learn.

As know it now, Free SHS is a veritable yoke around the neck of government, the economy, parents, the GES, teachers, and the students themselves. The promise we hear is that an improved economy would help deliver a better free SHS programme. BUT the sadness is that the Free SHS as we have it now would even hold us back from developing a prudent state expenditure, a reasonable balance of payment and sound economy which would reenergise and grow itself and its people!

In my next issue, I’ll share my suggestions on our secondary education saga. But surely, the answer to the Free SHS issue would be from technocracy and objectivity – never through politics!

Thank you, Compatriots for your kind attention. 

 Yaw Sekyi

[He who thinks little, errs much]

On December 15, 2013, Ghanaweb.com reported His Excellency John Mahama as saying that “Ghanaians have very short memory”. With some qualification, I agree with you, your Excellency. I crave your indulgence to modify the statement to read “some Ghanaians have very short memory”. On this we have a perfect agreement.

Indeed, “Some”, not “all” Ghanaians have very short memory. Your recent statement on how to solve the multiples of problems facing the Ghanaian economy leads me to think that you are among the Ghanaians that have short memory. But take or leave it, some other Ghanaians do not suffer from the disease of short memory. And given that you suffer from this debilitating disease called “short memory” your latest statement will be securely saved for the future and in the unlikely event that you become President again.

Your Excellency, you are right that the Ghanaian economy is troubled on many fronts. The debt level has risen astronomically. Budget deficit is high. Inflation is rising and cost of living is soaring. As you put it, urgent interventions are needed. Your recommendation for a Senchi-style dialogue on the economy is hard to disagree with. I have always thought of governments of developing economies beset by structural problems including ethnic divisions to do all in their powers to seek and foster national consensus. It helps minimize unnecessary tensions and focus national attention on the critical issues.

But Your Excellency before we get to Senchi (we may even decide to go Bole as part of consensus building and forging political accommodation) important issues in your statement deserve closer scrutiny. That examination should allow us to establish consensual frame and context before we get to another “Senchi Consensus”.

The 2022 troubled economy is vastly different from the economy you ran between 2009 to 2013 as Vice President and Head of Economic Management Team and 2013 to 2017 as Head of State.

The first issue I want to address is the economic growth dynamics. In 2013 when you became President, economic growth (7.1%) dropped to half of what it was in 2011 (14.4). From this point, the economy went into downward spiral, reaching a low of 3.4% in 2016 when you suffered the most crushing electoral defeat of the Fourth Republic. In 2015, when you finally crush landed the economy into the arms of the IMF, growth was only 2.2%, the lowest since 1984.

Your Excellency, you do not have to explain to us what was going on. You may lack accurate recollection of events – since you are among our compatriots who suffer from “very short memory”. Fortunately, some of do remember that nothing catastrophic had happened. We do remember that between 2011 and 2015, your