The Vice President and Presidential Candidate of the NPP, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has underscored the significance of the Free Senior High School policy to bridging the gap between the poor and the rich in society, as well as helping in the acceleration of Ghana's development.

The Free SHS policy, introduced by the Akufo-Addo government in 2017, has ensured equal access to secondary education for all, and so far, over 5.7 million children have benefited.

Speaking in Asante Akyem Central Constituency on Saturday, as part of his campaign tour of the Ashanti Region, Dr. Bawumia said the NPP Government had to implement the Free SHS policy for two reasons; to afford the poor and the needy access to secondary education, and also to increase Ghana's literacy rate, which he said, is key to the development of any country.

"When you look around the world, countries that have developed are countries that have advanced in education. In countries that the rate of education is high, these countries also turn to advance in development," Dr. Bawumia told stakeholders of the Constituency.

"Economics and other fields of study have showed that if a country wants to develop quickly the rate of education must also go up. But many of our children could not afford senior high school education. Children of the rich could attend but many children of the poor could not attend."

"It was a big problem and it was dragging the development of the country back because the children of the poor who could not afford secondary education were more than those who could afford. That was not good for the country's development. That is why we said by the grace of God if we got elected, we would introduce free SHS."

Dr. Bawumia also recalled that the NPP's decision to introduce the Free SHS policy was vehemently opposed by former President Mahama, who as President at time, said it was not possible.

"When we said that we wanted to introduce free SHS, former President Mahama opposed it and said it was not possible. He said it was. 419."

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