The Minority Leader in Parliament, Haruna Iddrisu has lauded the free Senior High School policy which officially takes off today [Tuesday] across the country describing it as a “noble” objective but unsustainable.
He argued that the mode of financing the policy is not sustainable in the long run.
“My emphasis is that let us not pursue this noble objective which is important for the future of our students and dear to the parent's hearts with experimental financing. Our position is one for which we are not asking for vindication today, we will be vindicated with time,” he said on the Citi Breakfast Show on Tuesday.
President Nana Akufo-Addo is billed to launch the free SHS policy today at the West African Senior Secondary School (WASS) in Accra.
Haruna Iddrisu on the Citi Breakfast Show said about 564,000 continuing students will not benefit from the policy because only fresh students are being covered under the programme.
“We appreciate and acknowledge the fact that whilst he was campaigning set out a noble objective of free senior high school. Remember at the time he was campaigning in the secondary schools not with final year JHS 3 students who are now targets of the free senior high school policy. Our contention is that the mode of implementation is fraught with difficulties. As we speak 564,000 students in senior high school will not benefit from the President’s free senior high school promise. That comprises of 270,000 in the second year and 290,000 in the third year,” he added.
The Minority had earlier asked the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to apologize to Ghanaians for refusing to capture continuing students onto the free SHS education policy.
The Minority, at a press conference on Monday, said: “if the NPP had any modicum of respect for the good people of Ghana, they should at the very least be apologizing to Ghanaians for their inability to fulfill the promise for which they were voted.”
Haruna Iddrisu who addressed the press conference said: “The continued claim by President Akufo-Addo and his acolytes that they have fulfilled their Universal Free SHS for all promise is simply hypocritical.”
NPP 2016 manifesto promise
Akufo-Addo in his 2016 manifesto stated emphatically that he will “redefine basic education to include Senior High School (SHS), covering vocational, agricultural and technical schools, and make it available for free on a universal basis to all Ghanaians.”
Source: citifmonline
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Mr Idrissu, In Dec 2020 after 3 years of free SHS in operation, I hope you are bold and brave enough to tell Ghanaians the scheme is not sustainable. We are watching....
Under ndc nothing is possible in this country but when it comes to State L'OOTING they(NDC) will assure you IT IS POSSIBLE TO S'TEAL.
Another NDC !d!iot... Free education is only possible in the north for over 40 years but not the rest of the country.... Some of these NDC thieffs including Haruna went to school for free in the north. I pray the NDC will go into extinction soon to free us from these greedy bastards.
I really do not understand the minority. What is not sustainable? Education for all basic school leavers in Ghana? There are thousands of families that cannot afford payment of SSS fees of their children in Ghana while we watch politicians recklessly dissipate the country's resources. You may be right in proposing a consented way of funding the free SHS that will ensure that future leaders have specific source of funds for one of the greatest interventions that will change the future of our country. In fact the most important factor in this intervention is the political will of the politicians to see to it that education is actually free and voters will ensure that. If I may ask, how are the funds inflow of politician sustained to ensure that they always have enough for election campaigns? How are the huge salaries of MPs sustained even to the extent that they receive their accumulated parting sums after every four years? How are the V8s maintained and fueled? Please.....I think that we should not even talk about sustainability because there are several government expenditure items that can be scraped to take care of our children's fees. How much money was spent on electioneering campaign by the ruling party last year? Juxtapose that with what is needed to run this programme. How much money has been illegally moved into individual's personal account over the year? Juxtapose that with what is needed to run this programme. Please come again.................
Haruna Iddrisu, you people from the North have been enjoying free education for more than 50 years now even though we have very rich people from the North. There is poverty in every region in Ghana. Even in Accra you will find abject poverty in Chorkor, Bukom, Jamestown and Teshie. The poverty in places like Ada and some areas in the Volta region is unimaginable, not to mention my own Central region. I am therefore surprised about the stance taken by Haruna Iddrisu and his minority. I will be shocked if members of the minority from the Central, Volta and other poverty ridden regions will support the stance taken by the selfish and corrupt Haruna Iddrisu.
what's with all this negativity? it's not about NDC neither is it about NPP. ITS ALL ABOUT GHANA. when the NHIS was being introduced you said same, instead of vamping it up u rather destroyed it, now a new policy has been brought to bridge the gab between the poor and the rich you are saying the same rubbish. now tell me, how has the free education in the NORTH been facilitated until today? STOP BEING NEGATIVE JUST FOR ONCE. THINK ABOUT GHANA FOR ONCE. ad3n!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YES FREE SHS WILL BE UNSUSTAINABLE ONLY WHEN NDC IS IN POWER. THAT IS WHY, WE ARE NOT GOING TO VOTE FOR YOU TO COME AND MAKE IT UNSUSTAINABLE. HYPOCRITES NDC
Yet the Northern free education which began some 50 plus years ago had been sustained since its inception? But the inclusion of the rest of Ghana is not sustainable if not for greed and ethnocentrism this Sylli comment shouldn't have been made by this minority leader. What NDC knows best is to create, loot and share. They reduced the SHS from 4 years to 3 years just to "make savings" for the purpose of sharing.
complete free education has been going on up north from the days of Nkrumah. no one said it is not sustainable. just keep quite and watch
Has this man now accepts the fact that they lied that they were starting free SHS when they said they have started it? NDC lies!