President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has insisted that proposals by the opposition National Democratic Congress to review the Free Senior High School program means cancelling the initiative.
According to him, former president John Dramani Mahama cannot be trusted to continue with the implementation of the policy as he and his party had fiercely opposed its implementation in their eight year term in government.
“We intend to protect and prevent any so-called review; another word for cancellation. We have no reason to believe the NDC presidential candidate newly proclaimed confessing to Free SHS and Free TVET. For eight years, he and his party were loud in their assessment that they did not believe in free SHS. They rubbished it with every opportunity and they proclaimed that it would destroy Ghana educational system,” he stated in his address at party’s manifesto launch in the Central Region of Cape Coast.
Recounting the NDC’s opposition to the policy when his party announced, he stated that the former president and his party had claimed that the policy would lead to a collapse of the country’s educational system should it be implemented
While stating his party’s resolve to protect the policy, he insisted that the former president’s intention to review the policy if he is elected in the December polls is an attempt to cancel the policy.
The NPP flagbearer argued that the former president could not effectively implement the progressively free Senior High School policy initiated by the NDC government. It is therefore his believe that the policy cannot be sustained under a government of Mr. Mahama and his party.
He added that “When they were in power, they had a hard time trying to run even their watered down version of their so-called progressively free education then the former president said he would review it and now we hear him say it has come to stay. Your Excellence, try another one, your credibility on this one is zero. Free SHS and Free TVET cannot be trusted in your hands.”
Former president John Dramani Mahama recently gave reassurance of his resolve to continue with the implementation of the policy should he be elected president in the December polls. Mr. Mahama dispelled claims by his opponents that his declaration to review is a scheme to cancel the policy stating that the policy has come to stay.
He however maintained that the policy was poorly implemented and therefore he would review aspects of the policy if he and his party win the 2020 elections.
