Minority leader of Parliament, Haruna Iddrisu, has lauded Akufo-Addo’s flagship education programme, the Free Senior High School, which is set offer total free education to all second cycle students in public institutions from this academic year.
Though he said the initiative is “noble”, he questioned the sustainability of the sources of funding for the programme that requires a total of GH¢486 million this academic year. Government last Thursday released GH¢280 million as part payment of the total sum through the Ministry of Education to all the 647 schools across the country.
Speaking at a durbar after the National Democratic Congress Unity Walk in Tamale Saturday, he said what the government is currently doing is experimenting with the source of funding; something he argued was exhibiting failure and has the potential to threaten the education of the students. “The idea of senior high school is a noble, social and political educational objective but the pursuit of it must be premised on adequate, reliable, sustainable financing not experimenting finance,” he advised. Mr Iddrisu asked the government to take a cue from the GETFund, which was introduced by the NDC government in 1997 to support tertiary education in the country.
“Just like the NDC did in 1997 when we had challenges in financing tertiary education we built national consensus which resulted in the GETFUND,” he said.
Mr Iddrisu who is the Member of Parliament for Tamale Central underscored the need for the government to consult stakeholders with the view to finding sustainable funding options, saying “We’re inviting the President for a dialogue…on the financing of senior high school in other to safeguard what is currently happening” He added: “we know and we say with certainty without fear of contradiction that the President cannot finance [it] and the economy cannot contain and finance the free senior high school. We need to be united as a country on how to finance it because it is manifesting gargantuan failure and we will not sit down and watch him jeopardize the future of our country”.
Source: 3news.com
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Anytime this people speak, you see clearly that, they have no idea of governance.They only know how to mismanage resources and stealing them to their own benefit and not to the nation. You were left with so many initiatives after 2008 you mismanage them..the president comes with his free SHS of which he talked about since 2008 and you sit somewhere calling for dialogue on how to find ways of founding it.You said it will not work. So the question I ask is, what kind of dialogue and what contribution are you going to make to it? Thank God the free SHS policy didn't require a parliamentary approval. I am sure you will have stage a walk out in parliament because you don't believe in the idea of free SHS.You always talkes about progressively free SHS of which we only was on paper because for the past 8 years that you were in power,we never see any concrete evidence of that so called progressively free SHS.
Free education made you who you are today .Tanniiii ***barred word***, watch man's son. Latri boys nephew.
Mr. know all Haruna , if funding three nothern free SHS was not a problem then the rest of region should not be a problem at all.Haruna , you are a benficial free school in the north so master keep quite for the problem .we are sick and tired of your lack of can do spirit