The flag bearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo has described the ruling National Democratic Congress’ “Better Ghana Agenda” as a “spectacular failure”. The NPP flag bearer said Ghana cannot afford to continue operating “an agrarian, raw material producing and exporting economy. It cannot generate the prosperity and the thousands of jobs that the economy demands”. Nana Akuffo Addo, who was addressing some students of the University of Ghana as part of his Greater Accra tour said “Ghana has to make a deliberate, conscious effort to modernize and industrialize the economy and make it a value adding one”. According to Nana Akufo-Addo, the NPP has tasked itself to pursuing the transformation of the economy which he added, could not be done without a competitive workforce- an educated and dynamic population- “that is the rationale for our educational policy because the rationale requires we guarantee access to all the youth of our nation to education". According to him to achieve a dynamic workforce, "...we are going to do two things. First, we are going to amend concept of basic education. Today by law our basic education ends at the level of Junior High School, so hundreds and thousands of young Ghanaians when they finish JHS believe they have had basic education and then move into life. What we are saying is that the new economy we want to build in Ghana, that is no longer enough. We are going to amend the Education Act to say that from Kindergarten, you stay in school until the end of SHS/Technical and Vocational Schools.” According to Akufo-Addo, the only way access to education can be guaranteed is for the state to take the burden of supporting education up to the end SHS. He added that the NPP has done the costing of the Free SHS policy and he was confident that Ghana can afford it. The NPP flag bearer stated that the very people doubting the feasibility of the Free SHS policy were the same who doubted the feasibility of the National Health Insurance Scheme among others. He also added that the Free SHS policy will be achievable if the country is able to reduce corruption and waste in the financial management of the country. He called on the students not to retain the “failed policies” and “failed personalities” in power as the country heads for the December 7 polls. Rather, Nana Akufo-Addo urged the students to embrace the NPP’s social and economic transformational agenda it has spelt out in its manifesto.