FREE SHS IS POPULIST says President Mahama ,product of Northern free education
News Desk Report
President John Mahama has described as populist, the opposition New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) free Senior High School education promise.
President Mahama said: “Looking at our educational system without being populist and just promising something for which the electorate will vote you into power, the demands for our educational system goes beyond free SHS education.”
President Mahama and a number of his senior ministers from the north all benefitted from the fee-free education in the north, which has been in operation since the early 1960s.
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party and other leaders of the largest opposition party, insist that they can use less than one percent of Ghana’s GDP, which translates into about GH¢78 million for the first three months of the free SHS implementation in 2013, if they win the December polls.
But, the ruling NDC remains skeptical about the promise. It has described it as a desperate attempt by the NPP flagbearer to win votes.
That skepticism was accentuated by President Mahama when he spoke to some Ghanaians in New York, where he had been attending the 67th Session of the UN General Assembly, according to Radio XYZ.
The President said: “People say NPP is promising free SHS education and so why don’t you promise same, but I say no. We must look at what our education is asking for, and based on that, we give a programme to Ghanaians to assess and see which of the two programmes, in terms of education, is better.”
Short URL: http://thechronicle.com.gh/?p=47982