Dennis Miracles Aboagye, an aide to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has criticised the government over what he described as poor handling of the education sector.
Mr Aboagye said although the government had made progress in expanding access to secondary education through the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) programme, it had not done enough to address some of the problems affecting the policy.
During his interview on Tuesday, August 11, he said feeding had become one of the major challenges facing schools.
“Nothing derailed the entire education sector. As we speak today, food is poor,” he said.
Despite his criticism, Mr Aboagye defended the Free SHS programme and said its main purpose was to make secondary education accessible to students from poor, middle-income and wealthy families without financial difficulties.
He said the policy should be judged mainly by how much it has increased access to secondary education compared with the situation before Free SHS was introduced.
“In fact, the World Bank has even said that Free SHS is the biggest policy this country has ever seen,” he said.
According to Mr Aboagye, the large number of students who now have access to secondary education shows that the Free SHS programme has achieved more than the system that existed before it.
“The singular objective of Free SHS is to grant universal access to the poor, the mid-poor, and the rich. Free SHS performance far outweighs pre-Free SHS,” he said.
However, he questioned why the government continues to use challenges with the implementation of its policies as an excuse for not fulfilling some of its promises.
Mr Aboagye argued that the government spent eight years in opposition and should have used that time to prepare for the challenges it would face once it came into power.
“The fact of the matter here is that every single promise that this government has made, they are failing at it. And all they keep telling us is, this is the reason why we can’t do it,” he said.
He added: “So what were you doing in opposition for eight years?”
Mr Aboagye again stressed his view that the Free SHS programme had achieved significant progress in expanding access to secondary education.
“Free SHS performance far outweighs pre-Free SHS.”
His comments come at a time when concerns continue to be raised about the quality of education, funding, food supply, infrastructure and other challenges affecting the implementation of the Free SHS programme.
