General News of Monday, 21 August 2017

Source: ghanacrusder.com

Don’t put all your hopes in free SHS – Okudzeto cautions parents

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, MP for North Tongu Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, MP for North Tongu

The Member of Parliament for the North Tongu Constituency and a former Deputy Minister of Education has admonished parents to safeguard their wards education should the free Senior High School fail.

Speaking to Accra based Asempa FM, Mr. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa further cautioned that the free SHS policy being introduced by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government will collapse the SHS system since there is not enough funds to sustain the programme even for a year.

“Very soon private secondary school will be preferred to the public schools because of this policy. Government has not put the necessary measures to make it work” he stressed.

The North Tongu Member of Parliament urged caution in the implementation of the policy stating that per this announcement enrollment is likely to shoot up.

“There is a report that says we should begin to target rather than this holistic approach in providing free education. I think this is the time to look at those studies dispassionately and objectively, because I think it is a very sensible argument.”

However, Minister for Education, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh has allayed fears that insisting that government is not oblivious of the obstacles ahead with the implementation of the free SHS policy.

He reiterated the Akufo-Addo administration’s determination to roll out the governing party’s campaign policy in September 2017.