Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, running mate to Nana Akufo-Addo for the 2012 general elections has stated that the proposed Free SHS programme of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) would eliminate monetary considerations in determining who can gain access to post-basic education and who cannot.
Dr. Bawumia stated this on the first day of his Brong Ahafo tour during a community durbar organized for him at Manhyia, a community in the Asutifi South constituency of the region.
Addressing the chiefs and people of the community, Dr. Bawumia said “we have pledged wholeheartedly to ensure that we make secondary education free for all. Our determination to fulfill this promise is influenced by the fact that when SHS becomes free, it would ensure that access to education would be no longer determined by how wealthy one’s parents are.
As a nation seeking to develop and better the lives of our citizens, we would have a major problem if the education for our future leaders continues to be determined by how much one has especially as millions of our people live in poverty.”
He said he was not surprised by the pessimism of the NDC about the initiative and the constant claims by officials of the ruling party that the Free SHS pledge cannot be realized.
Dr. Bawumia wondered why some political opponents felt it was so difficult to make SHS free at a time other countries were going to the moon, landing vehicles on Mars and doing other amazing things.
“What is really impossible in today’s world where other states are sending vehicles to other planets like Mars and breaking the bounds of almost everything perceived as impossible?” he asked.
He noted that it was the same pessimism the NDC showed when the NPP promised to institute the National Health Insurance Scheme and stated that unlike the NPP which had successfully instituted the NHIS, the NDC had failed woefully to fulfill its promise to make the NHIS a one-term premium paying scheme. He mentioned that while the NPP thought about possibilities, the NDC was preoccupied with impossibilities saying the NPP under Nana akufo-Addo would make secondary education free as promised just like it instituted the NHIS.
The Chief of Manhyia interacting with the Vice-Presidential candidate said the main concern of the inhabitants of the village was getting the right quality education for their children. He said his generation had unfortunately lived in serious poverty and deprivation adding that it was their wish that their children would receive the right education to enable them break the cycle of poverty and secure better livelihoods.
Dr. Bawumia is on an eight day tour of the Brong Ahafo region and is accompanied by many leading members of the NPP including Dominic Nitiwul, MP for Bimbilla, Stephen Yakubu, MP for Binduri, Charles Bintim, former Minister under the Kufuor Administration, Moctar Bamba, NPP National Organizer, Sheik T.B. Damba, NPP 2nd National Chairman, Boakye Boateng, NPP Parliamentary Candidate for Asutifi South and Kwaku Asoma Cheremeh, NPP Brong Ahafo Regional Chairman.
