'We’ve done costing for our free tertiary education promise' – NDC

The opposition National Democratic Congress says it has done costing for its promised Free tertiary fee for the 2020/2021 academic year students.

According to the party, the promise was made after the necessary cost elements were considered by the education subcommittee of its manifesto committee.

The NDC on Tuesday announced it will absorb all costs associated with first-year admissions of the Free SHS students.

“The National Democratic Congress (NDC), announces that it has accepted for incorporation in the Peoples’ Manifesto, the recommendation of the Education Policy Group of the party that the next NDC government absorbs the FULL school fees of Ghanaian students who will be admitted to tertiary institutions in the 2020/2021 academic year,” the party said in a statement.

Following the announcement, some Ghanaians called on the party to clarify its source of funding for the promise.

Speaking to Francis Abban on the Morning Starr Wednesday, former deputy Education Minister Alex Kyeremeh said the party will work with the various public universities to ensure smooth implementation of the program if they win the polls.

“We will add everyone who goes to tertiary. Going forward, we are even going to add private schools to free SHS. If you do the cost analyses for students who benefitted from the free SHS, it’s about GH?1,200 for a year per student. The moment you get admission into tertiary, the schools will have the numbers and will have to add up. So we’ll put the numbers together and give the money to the schools, instead of parents paying. We have offered Ghanaians ‘“fa ninyinaa” and ‘Kyemu P3? and the NPP is promising scholarship [which is already there]. So it’s up to them to choose whether they want “fa ninyinaa” and ‘Kyem P3? or the scholarship”.