General News of Thursday, 1 November 2012

Source: The Enquirer

Free SHS brouhaha: NPP after Owusu Ankoma's blood

The Enquirer can authoritatively confirm that there is uneasy calm and a high sense of disquiet within the high ranks of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).

This follows the candid revelation by one of their own, Hon. Paapa Owusu Ankoma, who suggested that the implementation of the party's flagship Free Senior School (SHS) education policy, touted by its 202 presidential candidate Nana Akufo-Addo, was going to be tough.

Mr. Owusu Ankoma, a former Education Minister in the erstwhile Kufuor regime, is quoted to have reechoed the doubts over the successful implementation of the policy in a recent Joy Fm interview.

The NPP Sekondi Member of Parliament (MP) disclosed “For me, the Free SHS idea is going to be very tough to implement.”

According to him, the party would need 10 years or more to make teaching attractive enough for a mass body of teachers that would be required for the implementation of free education policy.

He said, “The intention of the NPP is, over a period of about 10 years, to make teaching one of the most attractive professions in the country.”

However, party sources in an interaction told this paper that the position by Mr. Owusu Ankomea, a onetime presidential aspirant on the party's ticket, was unfortunate and smacks off high level of betrayal.

According to The Enquirer's impeccable high-up source within the NPP, the party is greatly incensed about what it described as a reckless and a needless comment.

“This is a needless and a reckless comment; we don't need this at this time especially as he is aware that is our main campaign message in the lead up to the December elections, this is betrayal,” the source noted.