The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has called on the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to be candid on the implementation of the “Free Senior High School” policy which takes effect today Monday.
According to the NDC, parents of SHS students in Forms 2 and 3 are angry at the government for deceiving them: the thinking was that continuing students would be covered under the policy.
About 400,000 students are expected to benefit from the education policy that will exempt first year students from paying tuition and other fees.
The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at the launch of the logo for the policy two weeks ago, said apart from free tuition, there will be no fees collected for use of the library, computers, utilities etc.
“Free SHS will also cover agricultural, vocational and technical institutions at the high school level. I also want to state clearly again that we have a well-thought out plan that involves the building of new public senior high schools and cluster public senior high schools,” the President said recently.
President Akufo-Addo is expected to launch the programme at the West African Senior High School (WASS) in Accra on Tuesday, September 12, 2017.
But contributing to discussions on TV3 New Day on Monday hosted by Bright Nana Amfoh, a Communications Team Member of the opposition NDC, Abraham Amaliba said “as a government you don’t lie. When they were making the promise to the people, is that what they told us?”
He said the NPP “in opposition lied to come to government and still continue lying to the people of Ghana. They indicated that they were going to provide free SHS to the people and so parents voted for them but what we are implementing is not free SHS. It is free first year SHS”.
Lawyer Amaliba said “nobody is saying free SHS is bad but parents of those in second and third years are angry because they are not covered and we in opposition will monitor and see where it is not being implemented well”.
Nonetheless, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Export Promotion Authority, Eric Amoako Twum, said “a lot of parents who would have find it extremely difficult to send their wards to school can now send their wards to school freely”.
“This is not politics but about the well being of the ordinary Ghanaian because most people truncate their educational at the BECE level so with this, it is not going to end here”, he explained.
The NPP communications team member said “if destructive comments are coming from the civil society organizations, I don’t have any problem but if its NDC, then I have a problem because they just left office. I don’t know where they get that moral right to say you should have put these and that in place”.
Mr. Amoako Twum said “they opposed almost everything. Like the Metro Mass, NHIS, etc, but they find a way of implementing and then they ruin it”.
By Kweku Antwi-Otoo|TV3|3news.com|Ghana