Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has charged Ghanaians to jealously guard the free SHS policy which was implemented in 2017 by the New Patriotic Party. The policy which give unrestricted access to pupils to have high education has been touted by the NPP as the biggest socially progressive policy since independence.
The promise came under a barrage of criticisms and unfounded misgivings by the opposition National Democratic Congress, especially with the introduction of the double track system. The opposition NDC mentioned the policy was ill-implemented and not well thought through.
Current flagbearer of the NDC, Fmr. President John Dramani Mahama, had once, in November, 2017 questioned the hasty implementation of policy. “Why should the government introduce free education now when the Constitution says it should be done progressively? In fact, it is not by force to introduce free SHS now,” Fmr. President Mahama is quoted to have said in November, 2017. Former President Mahama had earlier, in the lead to the 2016 elections, described the promise as a fake assurance only to secure votes.
Meanwhile, Fmr. President Mahama has made a U-turn on his earlier assertions saying he had no intentions of abolishing the policy. The NDC in their people’s manifesto promised of making the free SHS policy better. The party says it will abolish the double track system in its first year if voted for in the December polls.
But the governing New Patriotic Party has taken a swipe at recent declarations by Fmr. President Mahama. They’ve questioned his credibility and have described him as inconsistent in his utterances on the free SHS policy.
Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has thus cautioned electorate to treat the NDC’s promise with all the contempt it deserves. According to the vice president, the NDC party does not have any commitment to protecting the gains of the free SHS policy.
According Vice President Dr. Bawumia, this intervention alone has the potential of sustaining Ghana’s quest to development. “Education is what is going to make us rich in the future. It is not gold or oil. It is education”, Dr. Bawumia affirmed whiles buttressing on relevance of free SHS.
He however cautioned that the free SHS policy should not be toyed with. In reference to the NDC’s promise of making the policy better than it is today if voted for in the upcoming December 7 elections, the Vice President said their opponent, the NDC has no moral locus to the event comment on the free SHS. “Some said it was not possible. Some people said if they had the money, they wouldn’t spend on free SHS. Those people are not the people you want to bring back to government because they don’t have the commitment to the free SHS”.
The vice president mentioned that the government that has shown commitment to sustaining the free SHS is the NPP government and thus should be kept in office to guard and consolidate the gains made during the past four years.
By Sefah-Danquah S.