Criticism against Free SHS was unfair – Opoku-Agyeman

Former Education minister Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyeman has said the initial criticisms against the Free SHS policy was unfair.

In her view, it was unjustifiable for anyone to have criticized the policy when all the details were not known.

The Akufo-Addo government is yet to disclose the source of funding for its flagship education policy which commenced in September 2016.

Even though the free SHS policy increased school enrolment in all Schools across the country, it came with its attendant infrastructural challenges.

The minority in parliament says the challenges bedevilling SHS education as a result of the new policy are overwhelming and will cripple the schools soon.

Speaking to Francis Abban on the Morning Starr Monday, the former Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast said she will personally not offer any advice on the Policy.

“It was not fair to criticize the Free SHS program when we didn’t have the documents on it earlier. I will not offer any advice on the Free SHS program.

“The Progressively Free Program started in 2015. Monies due for payment were paid under the progressively free project,” she said.

On claims that the Mahama administration scrapped teacher allowance, professor Naana said: “The teacher trainee allowances was not scrapped. We rather introduced the teachers’ loans. There were a lot of young people in the system who needed to be in the teacher training schools but they couldn’t get in there because we could admit only those that we could take care of”.