Former President John Mahama has promised to review the Akufo-Addo government's policy to provide free Senior High School education if elected President in December 2020.
The policy is ill-timed, he told party faithfuls at the Cape Coast North constituency in the Central region during a tour ahead of his party's presidential primaries.
The policy was launched less than nine months into the Akufo-Addo government in September 2017. The President remarked during the launch at West Africa Senior High School in Accra, “I was labeled a liar by my opponents, who went on to state that Free SHS could only be possible in 20 years time.”
But former President Mahama has criticised the government observing, suggesting that the policy is struggling because government failed to assemble experts and stakeholders for a national conference on education to deliberate on the policy.
This solution, he said, was how the previous National Democratic Congress (NDC) government set up the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFUND) in 2000 to provide funding for educational infrastructure and scholarships to needy but brilliant students.
GETFUND, which is an Act of Parliament, is funded by a 2.5% tax component in the 12.5% Value Added Tax (VAT).
John Mahama reminded his audience that GETFUND happened under the instrumentality of NDC leaders like Dr. Ekwow Spoi-Garbrah, who was then Education Minister and is now also running for 2020 NDC flagbearer.
He lamented that the Akufo-Addo government continues to shun an all-inclusive approach to drafting national policies on sensitive subjects like education. "If Ghanaians come together, we can come out with a workable timetable for implementing free SHS," he said.
The budget for the free SHS was increased from GHS400 million in 2017 to GHS 1.2 billion in the 2018 budget, and government remains under pressure to find sustainable source of funding for the flagship policy.
The former president said evidence of the ill-planned free SHS policy is seen in the challenges of overcrowding which it faces.
"Our NPP friends, they don't listen to advice, they think they know everything," he criticised.
In response to high enrollment rates in Senior High Schools since government implemented the flagship policy in September 2017, the Education Ministry announced the introduction of the double track system.
The system divides the entire student body and staff into two different tracks. So while one track is in school, the other is on vacation and vice-versa.
Infographic double track SHS
The game-changing move will see Ghana's second cycle institutions move away from three school terms to a two-semester system similar to that run by tertiary institutions. The new system ends the over 70-years old secondary education cycle.
"We just finished vacation. Children have been at home for nearly three months. It is time to go to school you say you have to stay at home for nearly 41 days and let your friends go.”
"After 41 days they will come home and sit down..it doesn't make sense,” he criticised.
A future NDC government under his leadership will form a high-powered stakeholder committee to have a relook at the policy and its implementation, he said.
But first, the former President needs the party's ticket to lead the NDC in 2020 in a 10-man race in which he remains the frontrunner.
During the 2016 elections, the NDC held the position that Ghana is not ready for free SHS. The NDC government said there is the need to expand infrastructure and improve quality.
Free SHS should be progressive, the Mahama government argued but lost power to Akufo-Addo who first popularised the promise for free SHS in 2012.
President Akufo-Addo has said, free SHS has come to stay with Ghana's education system but if the level of political involvement in the running of Ghana's education system is anything to go by, it could be subject to change.
In 2009 after the NDC government won power, it reversed the NPP's introduction of a four-year Senior High School system to the previous three years.
The Akufo-Addo government after winning power has kept it at three years but said it has tackled the problem of financial access by introducing free SHS.
Source: myjoyonline
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Mahama was drunk when he made the statement. When i told you that, he was drank and couldn't go the party headquarters, the "babies with sharp teeth" were insulting me. Just one week in his campaign, see the mess he is causing to NDC. If we make a mistake, this will be the end of NDC.
This man is a f000**00l, excuse me! say what you can do for Ghana ,and not what somebody is doing for Ghana, why is this man so much obsessed with power like that, and behaving like it is his bona-fide property somebody has taking away from him, and who told him Ghanaians need him? he might be dreaming in the wilderness! Ndc and cut and paste, somebody do it for me to give it another name and John mahama thinks Ghanaians are f000**00ls like those who are pushing him? if John mahama was better he wouldn't have been humiliated in such a defeat unprecedented in the history of Ghana, a sitting president who has been kicked out and talking like a kid,he is coming back to review policies Ghanaians are enjoying, is this guy alright? I'm surprised his advisers are not telling him to convince his party delegates who are disappointed he led them into opposition and why he should be considered to lead them again above all the other contestants but has rather started running his dirty mouth again just to annoy the majority of the Ghanaian people who voted massively against him for his insults and uncivil behaviour to others who disagree with him and appointing people who think and behave like him insulting, disrespectful, uncivil, arrogant, thi*ving with impunity and power drunk. Ndc will rot in opposition! I don't even think this Mahama respect their delegates and the other contestants because he thinks it is a down deal for him and no challenger! John mahama has forgotten he just left office and his team touted JM TOASO, ONAAPO and those nons*nse which sent the party that JJ Rawlings fought hard to bring back to power and he mahama sent to opposition in a massive humiliating and spectacular way! John mahama has short memory and can't learn from his mistakes! I pity ndc the party that JJ Rawlings sacrificed his life for and gone to dogs. Somebody tell John mahama Ghana is not a casino for that Gonja mafia to use to build another empire! he will lose and lose bigger than 2016. John mahama can't express himself and doesn't know what it means to be in power,he want to be there just to create l0000*00t and share! and noway for Ghanaians to be that st*pid to hand over our country to a conman! Ghana is working, the future of the youth is on course! Ghana is in safe hands!Ghana will be great again! Ghana deserves better! Aaaaaaway Kriminals in the ndc! ndc 2020=30% !
This shows that mahama is wicked and he dont care about poor ghanaians, he only want to come back and loot the tax payers money again.God the Almighty will never allow this evil intensions of mahama happen in ghana.
I think this man is loosing it. This is too sensitive to touch on Mr Mahama. Almost every home is direct beneficiary and you don't go down this road. Free advice!! The issue whether all of us need it or not is another topic. The government said there is no clear formula to separate those who need and those who don't. Do you use cars, houses or food they eat? The recent happenings in the banks has exposed many fake rich people in Ghana. NPP has learnt from the previous 4yr SHS which NDC came to reverse. Free SHS was started early because Nana knew NDC people. If it was left late and covering only a year group, it is easy to reverse but it will be fully entrenched before NDC comes again, that is if Ghanaian will eve make the mistake of bringing NDC back to power.
Yeah! There they (NDC) does! They will CANCEL the free SHS as we told you. Ghanaians, beware of NDC and NEVER vote them to power. They ONLY want power to CREATE, LOOOOOOOT & SHARE!
I suspect this man is talking from the Dream Land. Please, somebody should wake him up.
This is the more reason why you will never become President again. You will never come close to that seat again.
Desperate for Power!!! I wonder the kind of compaign you are embarking. If NPP don't listen then you never learn. What didn't we see under your leadership? Let me remind you sir, you were President for 54months. Name one major social intervention you implemented? just one!
BUT WHO IS GONNA ELECT YOU? IN YOUR DREAMS WAE.
That is why Ghanaians are not going to make mistake to vote for you,had it not be free education, i bet you MAHAMA, you wouldnt have gotten the chance to be at where you are. We voted you out because you do not care about the poor Ghanaian who cant afford to take care of his / her kids. GOD FORBID FOR YOU TO BE PRESIDENT AGAIN