Free SHS is diluting quality education - Muntaka

Member of Parliament for the people of Asawase in the Ashanti Region, Alhaji Mubarak Mohammed Muntaka has described the Free Senior High School policy as a very useful one but lacking good implementation direction.

The Minority Chief Whip has bemoaned the poor implementation of a policy he described as “very useful”, commending the Akufo-Addo administration for its bold start of the policy, but added the challenges associated with the implementation are making the policy to appear as a bad one.

Speaking on Okay FM’s 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show, Hon. Muntaka admitted to the fact that the beginning of every project comes with some challenges and prayed the Akufo-Addo government fix the challenge with the Free SHS policy.

“The Free SHS is a very useful policy as a nation and I commend the government for its boldness to start the policy, but look at the challenge that comes with it. I agree that the beginning of everything comes with a challenge and we are all praying that the government will be able to fix it, but the SHS has become traffic light; some are on green and others are on yellow and very soon, some of the students will be put on red and the red is when they fail their exams,” he bemoaned.

He mentioned that it is a reality facing the country that government has collapsed the basic schools as people living in all the big cities are taking their children to private schools.

He feared that the poor implementation of the Free SHS policy may collapse the secondary schools again; thus, those who can afford may end up taking their children to private secondary schools as it is happening in the basic schools.

“Is this the kind of country we want to run? Did they [Akufo-Addo government and NPP] think thoroughly about it before they implemented the Free SHS policy? Because the implementation is having too many challenges and the ripping effect will not happen today but in about 5 years later when they have completed tertiary education and yet they cannot even write ‘Myself Essay’,” he lamented.

Mubarak Muntaka stressed that “regardless the challenge, I will bear witness that the policy is very good but the implementation is diluting quality education”.