The presidential candidate of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, has taken a swipe at communicators of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), who misinterpreted his decision to review the free senior high school policy as cancellation.
The former president could not understand why people who are learned could interpret review to mean cancellation.
He has therefore charged them to look for the meaning of the word “review” in the dictionary if they lack an understanding of its meaning.
Addressing a gathering at Agona Asafo, John Mahama reiterated his decision to review the policy to make it better in his first hundred days.
According to him, he will conduct a holistic review of the entire education sector, particularly the free SHS policy.
He promised to do this together with every stakeholder, including parents and teachers, among others.
He acknowledged that the policy was a fine idea, but swiftly added that the government had failed to effectively implement it.
He stated that, while SHS was free, the expense parents incurred in purchasing prospectuses and other related fees was prohibitively high.
Mr. Mahama added that the scheme was beset with various obstacles, including inadequate student meals in our high schools.
“I have consistently spoken about free SHS and the need to review it.” Whenever I mention it, the NPP and communicators distort it as a cancellation. They politicise the subject. They should look up the word in the dictionary to check if it is a cancellation. There is a need for a review, which is why I mentioned that within the first 100 days, we will conduct a stakeholder engagement to discuss how we can effectively review the policy for better execution. “The policy is good, but the government must implement it properly so that we can reap the full benefits,” he said.
“We have free SHS, but the cost of free SHS to parents is expensive compared to when students paid fees,” he remarked. The food at our schools is appalling. The food served to our students is unhealthy.”
By: Rashid Obodai Provencal/Rainbowradioonline.comGhana
