A New Patriotic Party (NPP) stalwart, Charles Wereko-Brobby has questioned why some schools across the country lack infrastructure if Ghana’s constitution mandates free compulsory education.

In a yet-to-be-aired interview on Joy FM’s Personality Profile, Dr Wereko-Brobby, alias Tarzan, said this issue is a big disappointment.

It therefore amazes him how the focus has shifted from the infrastructural deficit to a political debate on whether secondary education should be free now or in the future.

“One of my big disappointments with the debate that is going on in this country is that we have a situation where our constitution has set out clearly that free compulsory universal basic education must come first and we have children lying on their bellies without desks, without schools, studying under trees and we’ve jumped all of that and the political debate is about whether it is gradually free or free. I mean it a real disaster for this country,” he told host, Lexis Bill in the interview to be aired on Thursday, February 23, 2023.

His comment comes against the backdrop of a JoyNews feature series dubbed “Ghana’s Schools of Shame” which highlights the country’s education infrastructure challenges in three districts of the country.

The Krachi Nchumuru District, for example, has 68 public basic schools. About 45 per cent of the schools are in terrible shape. Over 7,000 children have no furniture.

The situation is not different in the Kpandai District where many of the children lie on the bare floor to take lessons and examinations.

Meanwhile, the Education Minister has dispatched about 5,000 desks to 85 schools in the Kpandai District in the Northern Region to enhance teaching and learning.

The challenges, according to Dr Wereko-Brobby, have compelled most parents to send their wards to private schools.

“People who put their children into public basic school is not out of choice. Like I said even house helps and drivers are also choosing private schooling because they think their children get a better chance,” he said.

The NPP stalwart, however, stated that if the basic school standard is raised, enrolment into private schools will decrease unless parents “who would like to keep their children in the private schools do so because they want to learn French.”

Using himself as an example, he said he went from a public school (Sito) to Achimota School.