Prez Mahama Swarmed By Female MPs (PHOTO)

President John Dramani Mahama yesterday announced in his State of the Nation Address in Parliament that his government would progressively introduce free senior high school education as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution from the 2015-2016 academic year. The announcement by the President sent the Minority New Patriotic Party (NPP) into a state of prolonged ecstasy amidst boos and chorus of �We told you so.� The issue of free senior high school became a big bone of contention during the 2012 electioneering period when the then NPP flagbearer, Nana Akufo-Addo, told Ghanaians that free secondary school education, as his flagship policy, would be implemented under his presidency to give free secondary school education to all Ghanaian children, but President Mahama who was also the flagbearer of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), said the free secondary education concept was not possible and questioned the source of funding for such a �populist� programme by the NPP, even though the 1992 Constitution mandates that. He therefore kicked against the free SHS as promised by NPP�s Nana Akufo-Addo. According to him, African countries, such as Kenya and Botswana, have reintroduced fee paying in their secondary schools after a free education policy nearly collapsed their secondary education system. �Countries like Botswana, Uganda, Kenya have implemented free SHS; today as I talk to you, Botswana has announced a reintroduction of secondary school fees. �Kenya has appealed for international assistance to prevent their secondary school system from falling apart. A recent study done on free SHS in Kenya shows that it is running into major difficulties,� President Mahama told students of Cape Coast University in the heat of the 2012 electioneering campaign.