Professor Kofi Agyekum, a Linguistics Professor at the University of Ghana, says it is unnecessary to haggle over who owns the free Senior High School (SHS) policy that many Ghanaian students have become beneficiaries.
The President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo honoured his promise of free SHS to Ghanaians when his government assumed office in 2017.
He implemented the policy to minimize the burden of parents in sending their children to school and also ensure every Ghanaian school child has equal access to education.
But the free SHS has become a bone of contention as former President and NDC Presidential candidate John Dramani Mahama claims he introduced the policy.
“We started the programme and the NPP came and continued it. Unfortunately the implementation has been very poor, and so it ended us in double track. I assure you my country men, that within one year, I will cancel the double track.
“All the Community Day Schools we were building, 200 of them, we are going to finish them so that all the children can get schools to attend.
“With the Community Day Schools we are building, we are going to add dormitory blocks for girls and boys so that those who don’t come from the community where the school is sited, if they choose that school and they are posted there, they will be able to get a decent place to live and learn," Mr Mahama said at Tuobong in the Tempane District.
Addressing the issue during a panel discussion on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'', Professor Agyekum wondered why who initiated the free SHS should become a topic.
According to him, he doesn't waste his time and energy over unnecessary fights because every Ghanaian knows who started and implemented free SHS.
He insisted that if Ghanaians are asked who introduced free SHS, there's absolutely no doubt the answer would be President Nana Akufo-Addo.
To him, if indeed former President Mahama introduced it in 2015 as he claims, it should have been felt before the 2016 elections but it wasn't until Nana Addo made it a reality.
Left to Professor Agyekum alone, the debate would immediately come to an end.
''There is no need wasting time, fighting and arguing about who introduced the free Senior High School (FSHS) education policy. It is very clear and every Ghanaian knows it was President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who touted it whilst seeking power and went ahead with a universal introduction when he was elected. If we were to hit the streets and randomly sample views, I am sure every Ghanaian will tell you it was Akufo-Addo who introduced it'', he said.
He further stressed his joy is that the free SHS has come to stay.
Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
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