Yaw Osafo-Maafo
Senior Minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo has said it is unthinkable for anybody to suggest that Ghana should still wait for about 20 years before rolling out the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) policy, which is being hailed currently as one of the best social intervention programmes of the country since independence.
He said the Akufo-Addo government does not have any regrets in implementing the policy which has put about 1.2 million young people in second cycle schools to study free of charge courtesy of President Akufo-Addo’s effort.
Speaking as a guest of honour at the 70th anniversary celebration of T.I. Ahmadiyya Senior High School (TI AMASS) in Kumasi over the weekend, Mr. Osafo-Maafo said, “The government of President Akufo-Addo embraced the storm in implementing the Free SHS. There are still powerful politicians who think we should have waited for 20 years. We don’t need that time of wasting; we must use our resources to support and educate our people. Government is of the view that if a big percentage of our resources will be used for education, so be it.”
Mahama Concern
In recent times, former President John Mahama who is seeking to return to the Presidency has been using the implementation of the laudable policy as his campaign focus and condemning the government for not getting the Free SHS fundamentals right.
He even made an astonishing claim to the effect that he introduced the now highly acclaimed Free SHS policy, which is a flagship initiative of the Akufo-Addo administration.
Mr. Mahama, speaking at Sienchem in the Asutifi South Constituency and later at Kasapin in the Asunafo South Constituency, both in the newly created Ahafo Region, said that he started the Free SHS programme, claiming it was meant for day students, a claim which has since sparked heated political debate.
Addressing them in Twi, he said, “Free SHS is good. If anyone stands anywhere and says that I, John Mahama, will cancel Free SHS tell the person he or she is a liar.”
“I haven’t said anywhere that when we come to power we are going to cancel the policy. We started it with day students and we were going to expand it when, unfortunately, we left office,” he added.
Double Track
He said he has not denied that he will cancel the double-track system introduced by the government as a temporary measure to cater for the unprecedented huge numbers that were coming to SHS as a result of the free policy.
“I didn’t say I will cancel Free SHS. What I have said is that when I come back to power, I will cancel the red gold green traffic light double-track system,” he stressed.
He claimed that the double-track system was making the students rusty, adding “I spoke to one teacher who told me because of double track the students come back to school not remembering what was taught them and you have to use about two weeks to refresh their memories.”
Besides, the former President claimed that “when the kids are in the house they engage in all sorts of immoral acts including smoking and use of tramadol.”
Propaganda Mood
He implied that President Akufo-Addo has forced many kids into schools without the needed infrastructure, claiming “today your kid gets admission and they say there are no dormitories.”
Nana Effort
At least some 804 facilities which started in 2017 under the Senior High School Intervention Projects (SHSIPs) are beginning to yield results, as some schools are being taken off the double-track system.
The projects consist of the construction of new classrooms, administration and dormitory blocks, as well as assembly halls, science laboratories and toilet facilities as part of the effort to expand existing SHSs although the NDC said in 2008 and repeated in 2012 that it would take 20 years or more to put up such massive infrastructural projects to make it possible for the implementation of the Free SHS policy that was proposed by the then candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
From I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi