Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu has questioned the propriety of the NDC’s proposed academic fee waiver for all freshmen in Ghana’s public universities asking how far the Free Senior High School policy has fared.
It follows the announcement of a free first year academic fee policy promised by the flag bearer of the Opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) John Dramani Mahama at the launch of the party’s Youth Manifesto
Speaking on Angel FM In an interview with Kwame Tanko monitored by Kumasimail.com the Suame Legislator retorted, “what has become of the free SHS,” while responding to the NDC’s promised ‘no fees stress’ policy.
According to Kyei Mensah Bonsu, the former president John Dramani Mahama has historically shown bad faith with every proposal to extend free education beyond the Junior High School.
He indicated that Mr Mahama’s promise to scrap a double track system adopted to manage the swell in Senior High School enrollment occasioned by the Free SHS policy was ill conceived.
“Even though 65% of JHS leavers qualified for SHS, only 35% could afford to attend. Now that all the 65% could enroll, we couldn’t have doubled infrastructure at a goal. So we had to adopt that system to accommodate everybody,” he explained.
He insisted that John Dramani Mahama together with key functionaries of his government including the then Education Minister Lee Okran described the policy as impossible.
He further discounted Mr Mahama’s logic of progressively free Compulsory Universal Basic Education as spelt out in the constitution insisting that the policy meant graduating free education across the different levels of education.
He said John Mahama’s notion of progressive as requiring a gradual introduction of free education in the Senior High School as propounded by the NDC is inconsistent with the constitution.
Source: www.kumasimail.com
