Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama has debunked claims that he will abolish the free Senior High School (SHS) programme if he comes to power.
He said “Free Senior High School education has come to stay. If anybody tells you that I, John Dramani Mahama, son of E.A Mahama will abolish Free SHS when I come, tell the person he is a bloody liar”.
The free SHS policy being implemented by the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) aims to take out the element of cost as a barrier to education.
The policy covers free tuition, admission fee, textbooks, library fees, science center fees, fees for ICT, examination fee, payment of utility fee, boarding and meals.
There have been claims by some members of NPP that Mahama will abolish the policy if given a second chance to led the country.
But addressing the King of Dagbon during a courtesy call, Mr. Mahama said he has never been against the policy.
He, however, said the current mode of implementation has consistently created problems for both students and their parents.
“What I am against is the poor implementation of the free SHS which is creating great inconvenience for the parents, for the students and for the teachers and the point I have made is that we can make it better.”
He added that “If this government had followed our plan of continuing with the 200 new Senior High Schools that we were building, we will not have the current situation that we have in our free SHS plan.”
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Daily Graphic
