Editor for the Ghanaian Publisher Newspaper, Yaw Obeng Manu has indicated that regardless of the challenges associated with the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy, it is laudable and should never be tampered with.
He believes the opposition, National Democratic Congress (NDC) would never cancel the policy which has benefited so many Ghanaians who could have otherwise not afforded to see the insides of an SHS classroom.
Speaking in an interview on the Happy Morning Show with host, Samuel Eshun on Happy 98.9 FM, Yaw Obeng Manu said, “I am not sure NDC is blind to destroy what is good for Ghana. Free SHS is something that has come to stay.”
According to him, if the free SHS policy had not been started all its associated challenges would not have been identified. “If you don’t start something, you will not know its problems. As the NPP started the policy three (3) years ago, we have seen what we need to do more. It was within that period that we saw to the implementation of the double-track system.”
Yaw Obeng Manu posited that every parent wants to take his or her child to a public Senior High School “because Ghanaians have accepted that the management and monitoring in public high schools is top-notch.”
He added that the government wants to open Senior Schools to all hence, the minor setbacks with the free SHS policy.
The editor revealed that over 180,000 students would not have benefitted from the free education policy if the double-track system had not been implemented.
“We just had to do it acknowledging the challenges in the process. You cannot implement a policy and face no challenges. Even God has made us realize that there are few resources available and we need to take advantage of them.”
He noted that the government of the day and the Ministry of Finance have done great work to fund the policy that seeks to help citizens in all corners of the country gain access to good and quality education.
By: Joel Sanco