Former President and National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer hopeful, John Dramani Mahama has chastised the Minister of Education for threatening to close down non-performing schools.

The Education Minister, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum last week warned that he will shut down schools that do not improve their educational outcomes.

But the former President while touring the Ahafo Ano South East constituency of the Ashanti Region indicated that it is the responsibility of the Ministry to improve the conditions and performance of schools rather than close the schools.

“The government must sit down and rather assess reasons why the schools are not performing. Maybe they don’t have adequate teachers or furniture to make learning easy, so they can perform”.

“The suggestion by the Education Minister to close down non-performing schools and enrol the students in other schools is unacceptable and insensitive to me,” he said.

He further touted the achievement of his former running mate, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku Agyemang during her tenure as Education Minister indicating that she invested in some schools to achieve higher status.

The former president while on his campaign tour in the Ashanti Region also sent a strong signal that any planned efforts by the governing party to rig the 2024 general elections will not yield results.

Recently in one of his campaign tours to the Bono Region, the former President categorically stated that the upcoming general elections will be a ‘Do or Die Affair’ and this has been heavily criticised by many.

But in his interaction with NDC delegates, he said, “What I mean by 2024 is a do-or-die affair is that, we will not allow anyone to cheat us. We want a free and fair election. We won’t take Ashanti Region for granted because they give us huge votes”.