The John Dramani Mahama administration inherited significant unemployment challenges and a backlog of teacher trainees deliberately created by the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, according to Sampson Samari, Deputy NDC Regional Youth Organizer for the Upper East Region.
Speaking on the state of employment and education sector recruitment, Samari urged Ghanaians to examine employment figures from 2023 and 2024 under the NPP for a clearer picture. He accepted to claim that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government has outperformed the NPP, arguing that the former ruling party should not serve as the benchmark for good governance.
“The NPP is not the standard of good governance,” Samari said. He quoted a former parliamentary leader describing an average NPP tenure as “a timely reminder of how not to govern.”
Samari stated that the NDC administration took over an economy “on its knees,” with few jobs available and key NPP initiated policies such as NABCO failing to function. He also noted that large numbers of personnel in the security services, including the police and immigration, were still undergoing training when the NDC assumed office. The government had chosen to allow those already in training to continue their careers rather than disrupt the process, he added.
On the teacher trainee crisis, Samari explained that the NPP, facing financial difficulties and International Monetary Fund (IMF) constraints, introduced a national service requirement for teacher trainees. After completing training and writing the licensure examination, trainees were required to perform national service before full employment. This policy, he said, was applied mainly to later batches.
“They only cleared the 2021 and 2022 batches. They intentionally left some… just to reduce the numbers,” Samari claimed. He stressed that the 2023 and 2024 batches of teacher trainees still waiting at home were products of the NPP era, not the current government.
Samari maintained that President Mahama and his administration are working to honour the promises made to Ghanaians. “Measures are in place to ensure that recruitment opportunities… every single Ghanaian is given an opportunity,” he said.
He called for fact-based discussions on employment statistics rather than partisan comparisons, insisting that the NDC government is focused on clearing inherited backlogs and creating broader recruitment pathways across sectors.
By Gayheart Abraham
source: mybluewavesonline.com/Maurice Duncan/Bolgatanga
