General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has mocked the decision of the government to review the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) programme as a result of the economic crunch.
According to Johnson Asiedu Nketia, when the NDC, led by former President John Dramani Mahama, in 2020, called for a review of the policy to sustain it, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his cohorts in the New Patriotic Party misinterpreted that to mean the NDC wanted the Free SHS collapsed.
Mr Nketia said, “Today, the NPP has announced a review for the policy” while questioning what dictionary the governing party will be looking into for the meaning of the word “review”.
He laughed at the fact that the NPP has now come to understand that the word “review” does not mean “collapse”.
Speaking in an interview on Accra FM, on Tuesday, 22 March 2022, Mr. Nketia said: “From the beginning, when the policy was introduced, we saw it coming and knew sustainability will be a challenge.”
He argued that the Free SHS programme, per the NPP’s plan of implementation, set out to treat the Haves and Have-Nots, as the same which, in his view, “cannot be possible”.
This form of implementation, he explained, was not sustainable for the policy.
He said the NDC believes the policy should have been implemented on a needs basis.
He quizzed how a student who went to Morning Star, Ghana International School, or other top-notch private schools that charge huge fees, should be made to benefit from free tuition at the secondary school level.
“It does not make economic sense and that is the reason the policy is having challenges,” he argued.
“The problem with the policy was the mass admission of all students which led to the double-track system,” he added.
He reminded the government that the major issue with the Free SHS policy is funding and nothing else, adding that the NDC if voted into power, will find the funds to review the policy to sustain it.
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