Fierce critics of the Akufo-Addo government privately acknowledge the importance of the Free Senior High School (FSHS) policy introduced in 2017.
This policy intervention, was not received with open arms in the corridors of the Umbrella Family, the NDC, as far back as 2008, when then candidate Akufo-Addo made free secondary education the footstool of his electioneering.
Some doubting Thomases, including NDC apparatchiks, described the current government’s social intervention policy as a mere campaign gimmick without implementation strategy. These elements even said the free SHS promise was a 419 scam, or “lie be lie” scheme just to deceive the voters to vote for the NPP.
Presently, there is a section of society who, for political reasons, think the free SHS poses a danger to our educational system. Nonetheless, after six years of its implementation, the beneficiaries, especially the students and their parents have become the apostles of the scheme, while the fierce critics now want to “swim” in the glory of the global acclaim of the policy.
By now, it is clear to most Ghanaians that, the NDC has regretted its opposition to the free SHS policy. We think that the verdict is out there now following the declaration of His Royal Majesty, the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, at the Special Congregation of the University of Cape Coast (UCC), last Friday, where an honorary doctorate degree was conferred on him and other distinguished personalities.
The Asantehene is reported to have said the free SHS is Ghana’s most audacious social intervention policy in the Fourth Republic, but we dare say, the most ambitious since the days of Governor Guggisberg. Reflecting on the nation’s educational trajectory, the Asantehene said, “undoubtedly, the free Senior High School programme stands out as a remarkably bold social intervention in our Fourth Republic.”
Those making the ugly noises about the implementation of the free SHS policy are doing so for selfish and parochial reasons. Ironically, the most vocal critics of the free SHS, include beneficiaries of a variant of the policy introduced by our first President, Kwame Nkrumah, for the northern regions of Ghana. And these beneficiaries include former President John Mahama, whose conversations about the policy, have been very negative, although he now claims the NDC introduced free SHS with his progressively free senior high school education.
Education is the leveler, as it helps to provide equal opportunities to the beneficiaries, irrespective of their status in life.
The free education policy, today, gives equal opportunities to students from all parts of the country to gain access to the so-called grade one schools, a situation which was highly impossible in the past when headmasters and headmistresses met in “conclaves” to select candidates they considered best students.
In spite of the machinations against the free SHS, it is clear that the critics fear the impact of the policy and even on their electoral fortunes. Some statements by John Mahama and his General Secretary, Fifi Kwetey, should settle the debate on who should take the credit for the audacious free SHS in the Fourth Republic.
In the heat of the electioneering in 2016, John Mahama said this about the free SHS. He described Akufo-Addo’s attempt to introduce free SHS as a whimsical promise of a desperate politician because many mistakes have been made by several African countries in this regard.
Then a few years later, John Mahama said at a community engagement in Navrongo that he introduced free SHS in 2015. Earlier, Fifi Kwetey, also in the heat of the 2016 electioneering said, “Today, if you hear Akufo-Addo and the NPP, going round shouting, free SHS, free SHS, that is what we call all lie be lie.”
So if that were the case, why is the NDC struggling to “cream off” the gains of free SHS, when they once demonised the policy?
John Mahama had previously warned that Ghana’s education system could face a near-collapse if the free SHS policy, as advocated by the NPP, was to be implemented. We think the debate about the merits and demerits of the free SHS has been settled by no less a person than the Asantehene, himself an “education entrepreneur.”
Now is the finest hour for John Mahama and his naysayers to put up with the free SHS policy or shut up!