A retired educationist and first Principal of the Bolgatanga Polytechnic Mr. Robert Ajene has described as erroneous the long held impression that northerners enjoyed free education under the administration of Ghana’s first President Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and subsequent governments.
The expansion of secondary education coincided with independence in 1957. Riding on the euphoric wave of freedom and self-determination, the newly independent nation, tried to conceptualize education as a vehicle for crystallizing new national goals and visions. This national vision witnessed the establishment of the GHANA EDUCATONAL TRUST FUND (GET) as part of Nkrumah’s educational agenda. Several schools were built under the GET Fund program beginning in 1959. In northern Ghana these included Navrongo Secondary, Ghanasco Tamale, Bawku Secondary, and Lawra Secondary.
Speaking on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show Monday, the retired educationist recounted that an amount of 10 million pounds was given to Dr. Kwame Nkrumah by the Queen of England to accelerate education in the north following a decision by a gang of northerners to visit the queen prior to Ghana’s independence to express reservations over the already widening developmental gap between the north and the south.
According to him, the money was used to build schools in the north, cater for all fees in all the schools and also to sponsor students who excelled and were qualified to enter higher institutions in the southern part of Ghana. This he noted is what has been misconstrued to be free education for the north but said it is rather a birthright of northerners.
“This money was to be used to put up many secondary schools so the north gets schools. Secondly, any person of northern extraction who was entering a school in the south, his upkeep was taken from that. Later all those secondary schools that were built, their boarding and all other fees were to be paid from the 10 million pounds. As we sit today, that’s where people erroneously say that the northerner enjoyed free education. I went through that system and I can argue that I never had free education but that was my birthright and the birthright of every northerner.”
Mr. Ajene further added that the proposal of the northern folks to the queen triggered the decision of the queen who made the grant to accelerate the bridging of the north-south gap.
“At pre-independence the north was not ready and did not want to go with the south for independence. The big gangs in the north went to see the queen who is still sitting there to say Nkrumah says we should have independence. I can mention that J.A. Braimah and some other people went to the queen to say the way the south is so developed, we are not. If we go for independence now, we are going to be dragged. The gap between the north and the south is too wide so why don’t we give a little time so that we narrow the gap or equal it so that we have independence and say we are one Ghana” he narrated.
Mr. Ajene therefore charged Members of Parliament of the north to call for a forensic audit to establish the state of the grant as it is suspected that the entire 10 million pounds was not fully expended by Ghana’s first president.
By: Azongo Albert | A1RADIOONLINE.com | GHANA
