General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana, Rev, Dr. Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong has lauded President Akufo-Addo’s government for showing consistency and commitment to carrying out every promise he made to Ghanaians during the 2016 campaign.
He pinpointed the inauguration of the one-district-one-factory and the soon to start free SHS policies as a hallmark of consistency and commitment on the part of Akufo-Addo’s administration as he [Akufo-Addo] has stuck to the free SHS policy since 2008 to the implementation level.
Speaking on Okay FM’s 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show, Rev. Dr. Opuni-Frimpong said that inasmuch as President Akufo-Addo’s government has shown consistency and committment to the implementation of the Free SHS policy in the next academic year in September, the players in the education sector must be shown their role in the flagship policy.
He insisted the implementation of the Free SHS policy must be a collective responsibility, thus all hands must be on deck in order not to leave the policy to the sole responsibility of the government.
“We have key stakeholders in educational sector; we have PTA, Old Student Associations, Traditional Leaders and the Clergy. Barely 3 weeks to start this flagship policy of Free SHS, the government has not shown the roles these stakeholders are supposed to play to ensure smooth running of the policy,” he averred.
He mentioned that these stakeholders used to contribute to the welfare of the schools but the introduction of the Free SHS policy in the next academic year does not spell out their roles as they used to pay some monies to the schools to enhance the performance of the students.
“We used to contribute to the welfare of the schools by adding to the school fees to cater for additional needs of the schools; we sometimes buy bus, build computer labs and pay for extra classes fees to the schools but for now, we don’t know if we are supposed to continue with such responsibilities or not,” he wondered.
Rev. Dr. Opuni-Frimpong again requested to know if these stakeholders still have the power to demand accountability of the welfare of the students as well as their academic performance as they are not aware of their role in this educational policy.
“These stakeholders per their contributions are able to demand accountability of the welfare of the students and their academic performance in schools but we don’t know how we will play that role since we don’t know our contribution to the schools under the new educational policy. Do we have grounds to demand quality education?” he quizzed.
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