Source: newsthemegh.com
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer, John Mahama, has asserted that the government’s initiative to give senior high school pupils free tablets is a vote-buying ploy intended to win the 2024 elections.
On Wednesday, April 4, 2024, he made this claim in a speech given in public at Wisconsin International University College.
The former president emphasized that because of the government’s preoccupation in giving SHS pupils tablets, the country’s education system has been disregarded and has failed to supply basic schools with the necessary educational materials.
“You bring a new curriculum, the children have no textbooks in basic school for the last four years and you think that giving pre-tertiary students tablets is more important. Of course, everybody knows the political expediency” Mahama said.
The pre-tertiary students are going to register in May because some of them will be turning 18 years 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”, he reiterated.
“Otherwise, if you are using GH¢1.3 billion to give pre-tertiary students laptops, our priority would have been different. Other things are begging for funding in our educational system than those laptops. But it is a bribe for them to vote for this government”, he concluded.
Instead of giving pre-tertiary pupils tablets, he underlined that there are other things that need to be done in the education sector.