A Deputy Ranking Member of Parliament’s Education Committee has urged the media to cease supporting the majority in spreading lies and misinformation about the government’s so-called free SHS bill, which aims to compel succeeding administrations to continue implementing the free SHS.
Dr. Clement Apaak, the Member of Parliament for Builsa South said the Majority, led by Alexander Afento-Markin, has made accusations against the Minority caucus for opposing the free SHS bill when the bill has not even been submitted before the House.
Dr. Apaak stressed that the Minority has demanded the bill, although they have not yet received it on the back of the accusations by the Majority.
He said Ghanaians would remember that it was on the eleventh of June that the Majority Leader indicated to the media through the Parliamentary Press Corps that the government would introduce a bill on free SHS through the Ministry of Education and that the intention of the bill was to ensure that successive governments continue to implement the free SHS policy in the form and manner Ghanaians have become accustomed to.
Indeed, after that pronouncement, the majority leader went on to indicate again a week later that the bill had received cabinet approval and was to come before parliament. He went on to disingenuously accuse the minority of opposing the bill.
But from what we have observed so far, the Majority Leader lied through his teeth in terms of its transition to parliament, the processes that had gone on, and the introduction of the bill, as we are now begging to hear.”
He maintained that the Minority is still awaiting the bill to be presented before the House, and when it comes, the Minority has no challenge supporting it as long as it is seeking to improve the implementation of the free SHS and make it more sustainable.
“From what we are hearing and if we should go by what the Minister has narrated through the Daily Graphic, in which he confirms the bill is yet to go to Cabinet, it will suggest that the bill that we have been told is supposed to guarantee the free SHS in its current form is actually seeking to reform, review, and restructure both basic and secondary education because the kids of elements that are being signalled have nothing to do with securing the free SHS policy the way and manner it’s currently is.
So we wait to see when the bill is going to come to parliament; we will get an opportunity to study it. But it is unfortunate that such a bill has not been subjected to stakeholder consultation and input, and I think that it is most unfortunate even if we wait to see the bill and examine its contents in full so that we can see if it meets the requirements that we all expected or not,” he told Accra-based Citi FM.
When asked his opinion about the proposed decision to cancel the basic education certificate examination, he said I now shudder to comment on a matter on a bill that we haven’t seen yet because it looks like the narrative keeps shifting.
At this point, I will advise myself and members of our party and members of our caucus to hold off any further comments specific to what we are hearing either from Alexander Afenyo-Markin or from Yaw Adutwum until we lay eyes on the bill because somebody obviously has not been telling the truth and we don’t know which of the two of them is telling the truth.”
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
