The Director of Political Affairs at the office of the Chief of Staff, Mr Frank Asiedu Bekoe, has challenged the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to tell Ghanaians how it plans to rope private second cycle schools in the Free Senior High School (SHS) educational policy.
According to him, the party has pledged to absorb private schools onto the free SHS policy when it wins power in the upcoming election but has failed to state how it intends to do that.
Speaking at a meeting with the Eastern Regional Communication team of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) at Tafo in the Eastern Region, Mr Bekoe wondered why an NDC government would want to bear the cost of private schools, especially when such schools make profits for themselves and not the state.
Former president John Dramani Mahama, who is seeking re-election, has criticised the NPP for the poor implementation of the free SHS, and has pledged to provide alternatives and additions if he gets the nod in December 7 polls.
He has promised to expand the policy to include private senior high schools as part of measures to abolish the double track system being implemented in the public schools.
But Mr Asiedu Bekoe said it was not enough for former president Mahama to make promises without a roadmap of how he intends to execute them.
“How can you include private schools in the free SHS policy when such businesses are operated with the sole objective of making profits? Who then pays private school teachers?”
“John Mahama has once said if he had GH¢2 billion, he would not spend it on free SHS and he is now telling us he will include private schools.”
“I am calling on the NDC’s presidential candidate to outline how he intends to carry out all he has promised, especially because he doubted the practicability of the free SHS policy when President Akufo-Addo said he was going to implement it,” he said.
BY TIMES REPORTER
