School-under-Tree better than selling dog chain – Dr. Frimpong Manso

The General Superintendent of Assemblies of God Ghana, Dr Paul Frimpong Manso has lauded the Nana Addo led government’s Free SHS policy saying “it is better to have schools under trees than to have our children selling dog chain”.

According to him, people must think of the impact the policy will bring to the society but not its recent challenges.

To him, similar government policies like VAT, the Health Insurance Scheme, and Building to the Jubilee House among others faced the same criticism at the initial stage but benefited the country at the end.

Speaking to Kumasi based Oyerepa Fm morning show hosted by Nana Jantuah, the Rev minister clearly showed that indeed the policy is a good one which has come to help the Ghanaian society.

“Today people are speaking against Free SHS but to me, I say, for a school to be under the tree is better than children selling dog chains”, He said.

He noted that the policy is healthy for the development of the country though people are heavily criticizing it.

“The fact that people are speaking against doesn’t mean they can kill such a policy or any other good one”, Dr Paul Frimpong Manso chided.

The policy since it was rolled has received lots of criticism mostly from media reportage on its shortcoming. In some instances, reports suggested, some students have to sleep under trees due to lack of shelter.

Dining halls have to be converted into dormitories for students to have a place to lay their heads. In several occurrences in the early stage of its, implementation, head teachers who attempted to take money from parents to solve some situations like these were either fired or transferred.

The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has said the policy won’t be fruitful.

A founding member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Dr Amoako Tuffour also revealed he cried once when he visited children benefiting from the program in school.

President Nana Addo in the past week accepted that implementation of the policy has not been easy when it comes to its funding but assured it sustainability.

The Finance minister, Mr Ken Ofori Atta has suggested parents who could afford to pay for their wards should be allowed to.