The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), has described as a monumental failure, President John Mahama’s implementation of the so-called progressive free Senior High School (SHS) education policy.
The governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) after the 2012 election, decided to implement what it called a progressive free SHS policy, a replica of the NPP’s much hyped free SHS policy.
Government had explained that to make the policy successful, it is building 200 community day SHS blocks nationwide.
However, current statistics show that only ten have been completed, whereas 123 others are at various levels of completion.
Speaking on Eyewitness News on Monday, Anthony Karbo said completing only ten of the schools“is woefully inadequate.”
“Within four years, you have been able to build only ten schools, that can’t be a pass mark, that’s a monumental failure on the part of government; Because if indeed the issue of free progressive education as they termed it is an urgent need for this country, I’m sure we could have speed up this process and given our children this opportunity of affordable quality education which we have promised since 2008.
So I will find it difficult to give them a pass mark. This is woefully inadequate and it is a disaster,” he argued.
Remaining 200 blocks to be completed in my 2nd term
His comment follows appeal made by President Mahama on Monday for a second term in order to complete the remaining school blocks.
Speaking at the inauguration of the new Abodoman Senior High School at Agona Abodom in the Central Region, President Mahama said “in my next term of office, by the grace of God, we will complete all the 200 new senior high schools that I promise. As I said, currently a 123 are under construction and that means that the central region will receive additional secondary schools among the remaining over seventy schools that we shall build.”
NPP to complete remaining 200 SHS blocks
But Karbo insisted that the NDC does not deserve another term adding that the NPP will continue the free SHS policy when elected into office on December 7, 2016.
“We are the proponents of this very bold and ambitious programme of free education especially with the teacher at the centre of delivering this policy and we are very committed to it. When we initially proposed it our opponents ridiculed us, they said all kind of things.
We have never been offended because we believe that at the end of the day, we are looking for what will benefit the Ghanaians. Don’t forget that government is a continue, we will come back in 2017 and provide to Ghanaians what our real policy in terms of education is. We are not going to push that away, we are the proponents of this big policy, we believe in it because it is a necessity for this country,” he added.
70 SHS blocks to be completed by December
Deputy Education Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa also speaking on Eyewitness News, explained that government is committed to implementing the free progressive SHS policy.
He disclosed that seventy of such blocks would be completed by December this year.
Sign up for Ghana Star News to receive daily email alerts of breaking news in Ghana. GhanaStar.com is your source for all Ghana News. Get the latest Ghana news, breaking news, sports, politics, entertainment and more about Ghana, Africa and beyond.
