Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia says although the government’s free Senior High School (SHS) educational policy is expensive to run, it is the cheapest and most prudent option available.
According to the Vice President, it will rather be more expensive for the country to have a large number of its citizens uneducated and called on the public to support the policy.
“Our mission should therefore be to help grow and manage the resources of Ghana in a manner that will enable us provide and sustain this transformational policy,” Dr Bawumia said when he addressed a gathering at Obo Kwahu in the Eastern Region last Saturday.
He said the Free SHS policy introduced by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was a transformational policy meant to build the human capital of the nation for future development.
The government expenditure on free SHS should therefore be seen as a necessary investment for the future of Ghana, he said
“I am a beneficiary of free education in the north, just like many members of the NDC including former President Mahama, and I am absolutely convinced that at this stage of our development, Free SHS should be enjoyed by every Ghanaian SHS student.”
“I therefore find it rather difficult to understand that people like former President Mahama who are direct beneficiaries of free education in the north will seek to curtail its implementation across the country,” he said.
Dr Bawumia noted that “Free SHS cannot be the problem. We are implementing so many programmes designed to reduce the hardships on Ghanaians, like massive reductions in electricity, implementation of the One Village One Dam and One District One Warehouse policies, while also increasing Capitation Grant and allowances for People Living with Disability.”
“We have reduced import duties on goods and cars, engaged 100,000 graduates under NABCO, cancelled fees for postgraduate medical training, restored book and research allowances for lecturers, created jobs and stopped the freeze on recruitment in the public sector. Over 350,000 people have been recruited.
“But, even without Free SHS, your government cancelled teacher training allowances, cancelled nursing training allowances, cancelled import duty waivers for health professionals, and increased taxes on every conceivable good such as condoms, ambulances and cutlasses. You failed to provide employment for thousands of qualified graduates.
“We (NPP) are able to implement all of these policies alongside Free SHS because we are growing and managing the economy in a prudent manner. All Ghanaian youth deserve free SHS education, and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s government will continue to deliver it,” he said.
BY TIMES REPORTER
