Communication Director of the New Patriotic Party has questioned the promise by the National Democratic Congress to extend the free SHS policy to private schools in deprived areas.
Yaw Buaben Asamoah is convinced that the NDC would be unable to fulfil the promise of extending the free SHS policy, implemented by the NPP government, to private schools in deprived areas.
The MP for Adenta Constituency argued that different private schools have different standards of education and charge their fees based on their standards, as a result it would be impossible for government to fund education of private school students since government does not control the fees charged by private SHS.
“The state doesn’t regulate how much is paid in private schools. Every single private school has a different set of standards and cost profile from the others depending on the quality they think they are offering. So is government going to approach them and pay for their quality or is it going to pay the standard price? And how does that work out for those who the standard price will not be effective for them,” he quizzed in an interview on Bolga based Yem Radio.
Constitutionally, he argued that the provision of education to children of school going age is the responsibility of the state stressing that private individuals are permitted by the constitution to provide education for business purposes and thus there is no basis for extending government educational policy which is in fulfilment of its constitutional duties to private schools.
The NPP Communication Director believes the promise by the opposition leader and his party is just an attempt to secure votes.
In his opinion, the NDC and its flagbearers are incapable of funding the already implemented free SHS and it is therefore not possible for them to extend the policy to private SHS.
“How are they going to fund them? On what basis are they going to fund them? It is just to attempt to secure votes. The state has a duty to provide education. Individuals bring flavor to education by running it as a business. Those who patronise private schools believe in the standards and output of those schools but public schools are for everybody,” he said.
He added that “that is why we are expanding access. That is why we are building the infrastructure in many schools across the country”.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) at its manifesto launch for the 2020 elections announced that it would extend the free SHS policy to private schools in deprived areas if it wins the 2020 elections. This is captured in the party’s ‘People’s Manifesto’.
