The opposition National Democratic Congress will scrap Free SHS in its current form if voted into power, former National Organiser of the party, Kofi Adams has said.
The Free Senior High School policy was a major campaign promise by the New Patriotic Party to the 2016 general election. Its implementation since September 2017, has however not been as smooth as many expected.
Three years post-election, the implementation of the policy has had a lot of challenges and opposition. The NDC believes the implementation of the policy should be done progressively while the NPP thinks available infrastructures should be put to it maximum use thus the double track system.
One person who remains appalled by the implementation of the policy by the current government is the NDC’s former National Organiser cum Parliamentary hopeful, Kofi Adams.
Commenting on the state of the Free SHS in an interview monitored by The Ghana Report, Former National Organizer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Kofi Adams, said the Free SHS policy is fraught with too many challenges, a situation he believes requires a complete scrapping of the policy.
He said effective implementation of the policy requires the setting up of proper structures.
“President Mahama’s government started with the Free SHS for day-students,the E- Classroom block to rope in a lot more people, then the free sandals among others and so President Mahama was working towards achieving Free SHS” adding that, “someone who has done this much can never be against the policy, it is the way it is been implemented that he is against,” he said.
Mr. Adams said, the NDC will scrap the ‘Kwashiorkor’ Free SHS and replace it with a qualitative Free SHS.
He insisted that, the current policy is only known for producing students who fail in very critical subjects.
“This is a malnourished policy; an educational system that is producing graduates that are failing in very critical subjects just because not much attention is given to such areas.”
“A system that is now so confused that you will be on vacation and Ghana Education Service (GES) will order that school should resume on a particular day, Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) will tell you we are not ready to receive the students, National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) will tell you that no, we are on vacation, total confusion and mess in the system and that mess is what the NDC will scrap, we are going to make it better” he said.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in September 2017 launched Government’s Free Senior High School Policy, making good his resolve to ensure accessible, equitable, quality and life-changing education for every Ghanaian child.