A deputy ranking member on the Education Committee of Parliament has slammed Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia for falsely claiming that 5.7 million children have benefitted from the free Senior High School policy.
Dr. Apaak, who is the MP for Builsa South, noted that the figure quoted by the candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) does not reflect the real figure of those who have benefitted from the policy.
Speaking at the final rally of the NPP today, Thursday, December 5, 2024, Dr. Bawumia disclosed that 5.7 million children have benefitted from the policy.
But reacting, Dr. Celement Apaak described the figure as incorrect.
He said from the government own figure, which is an official figure from the Ministry of Finance, only 3.1 million children have benefitted from the free SHS policy.
He also referenced a fact check done by Fact Check Ghana, a subsidiary of the Media Foundation for West Africa, which gave a breakdown of beneficiaries of the policy since its inception.
To him, the consistent lies peddled by the vice president make him a dishonest and insincere person to be entrusted with the leadership of the country.
“Lies, lies, lies! How could 5.7M children be in school [FSHS] when the total enrolment from 2017-2024 is 3.1M? Reject DMB; lies, dishonesty, and insincerity. Vote for JDM: truth, honesty, and sincerity. Change is our only option.”

This is the first time the Vice President has quoted this figure.
It would be recalled that a few weeks ago, he made similar claims, following which the MP called him out and asked that he withdraw the advert that was touting the figure.
Dr. Apaak issued a statement to that effect saying, “DMB must immediately pull his fraudulent advert, claiming that over 5 million students have benefitted from FSHS from 2017-2024. How can the number of FSHS beneficiaries be more than the number enrolled? Such blatant lies must be roundly condemned. DMB must apologise for lying to Ghanaians.
As is clear from work done by Fact-Check Ghana and captured in the table attached, less than 5 million students have benefitted from the program so far. Using enrolment figures reported by the government through the Ministry of Finance, Fact-Check Ghana has established that the total number of students enrolled from 2017-2024 is 3,135,754, way less than the concocted 5,000,000.
In fact, if Fact-Check were to use WASSCE entry statistics reported by WAEC beginning in 2020, when the first batch of FSHS students registered to write WASSCE, the number of beneficiaries would be less than 2.5 million. This is because not all students who enrol go on to complete by registering and writing WASSCE.
Ghanaians deserve a leader with integrity, not a leader who is averse to the truth. Pull your deceitful advert and apologise to Ghanaians, DMB.”
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana