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President Akufo-Addo has stressed it will be dangerous to leave the Free SHS programme in the care of Mr. John Mahama hence Ghanaians must give him a second chance in office.
Speaking at the manifesto launch of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Akufo-Addo said his predecessor has zero credibility and cannot be trusted with his flagship policy which has seen over 90,000 more students enjoying free second cycle education.
“He [John Mahama] couldn’t even implement the NDC’s ‘so-called’ free progressive free education and for that matter, he cannot be trusted on the Free SHS policy. We have no reason to believe NDC’s presidential candidate newly proclaimed convention to Free TVET and Free SHS.
“For eight years, he and his party were loud in their assertions that they did not believe in Free SHS and Free TVET. They did not like the idea, they rubbished it at every opportunity and they proclaimed that it will destroy Ghana’s educational system,” Mr. Akufo-Addo said in Cape Coast on Saturday, August 22, 2020.
He added: “When they were in office, they had a hard time trying to run their even watered-down version of their so-called progressively Free education. The then-president Mahama said he will review it and now we hear him say, it has come to stay. Your Excellency, please try another one. Your credibility on this one is zero. Free SHS and Free TVET cannot be trusted in your hands.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Mahama has promised that he will keep the Free SHS running if he wins. He said he has no plans to scrap it if he returns to power contrary to assertions on the streets.
According to him, he has never been against Free SHS but had issues with its implementation process which he claims has caused parents, students, and teachers great inconvenience.
“Free Senior High School education has come to stay. If anybody tells you that I, John Dramani Mahama, will abolish Free SHS when I come into power tell the person he is a bloody liar,” he said while paying a courtesy call on the Overlord of Dagbon, Ya-Na Abukari II.
The Free SHS, introduced in September 2017, meant that the fees of every child in Ghana, who gained admission to a public Senior High School, will be absorbed by the government.
It also meant free tuition, admission, textbooks, library fees, science centre fees, fees for ICT, examination fees, utility fees, boarding, and meals.
This, the government believed, will remove any cost barrier that prevents students from achieving their educational goals.
Source: Daily Mail GH
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