General News of Thursday, 18 May 2017

Source: starrfmonline.com

Napo, Hamid contradictions on SHS policy worrying – IMANI

Matthew Opoku Prempeh, Minister of Education Matthew Opoku Prempeh, Minister of Education

The President of policy think tank, IMANI Ghana Franklin Cudjoe, has charged the government to immediately clarify the seeming incoherence regarding the implementation of its free SHS policy.

Barely three months to the implementation of the policy, the Education Minister Mathew Opoku Prempeh disclosed to Morning Starr host, Francis Abban, that only students who passed their BECE exams will have the opportunity to enjoy the policy.

However, the Information minister Mustapha Hamid, told the Morning Starr a day after, that pupils will benefit from the policy without writing the BECE beginning the 2018-2019 academic year.

The seeming confusion over the government’s flagship program worries the IMANI President who has appealed to the government to release further particulars and guiding blueprint on how the policy will be implemented.

He said the current situation suggests that the government is ill-prepared in the implementation of the education policy which is expected to commence in September this year.

“We are in a dire need of policy coordinating units of important programmes like the Free SHS. The Education Minister says one must pass BECE before enjoying free SHS, the Information Minister comes in to say something else. There is a little of confusion and I think we all need clarity. A little coherence is needed in this whole free SHS policy and its implementation.”