Mahama 'has no clue' how to improve Free SHS – Bawumia

Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has challenged former President John Mahama to provide details on how he intends to make the free SHS policy better as he claims.

Reacting to comments by Mr. Mahama that he will make the policy more beneficial to students if he wins the 2020 elections, the Vice President told a gathering in Kumasi that the NDC flagbearer has no clue what he will do with the policy if he wins power.

“It’s interesting to hear the former President say today that he is committed to Free SHS. You have been criticising this policy since 2012 but as at today he has not been able to tell us exactly what he will do. What will you do? what are your concrete policies, don’t tell me you are going to wait and call stakeholders conference to consult; that is not leadership. Tell us exactly what you would do, if you are not going to do doable track, what is your alternative."

“And I throw that challenge to him, he should come out and tell us exactly what he would do. The visionary Nana said he would do and he has done it. He has not told what he will do because he I know he doesn’t know what he would do. He has no clue what he will do and that is the simple answer. I am hundred percent sure that if John Mahama was in office today, we wouldn’t have free SHS,” he said.

Mr. Mahama on Wednesday countered claims by President Akufo-Addo that a future NDC government will collapse the Free SHS policy.

“Free SHS is here to stay. Indeed it is underpinned and guaranteed by the 1992 constitution of Ghana and it cannot be reversed by any government,” Mahama noted at the 27th Annual Residential Delegates Congress organised by the Ghana National Union of Technical University Students in Kumasi Wednesday.

He further noted: ” Mr Chairman, but all administrations including this one and any future one have an obligation to make it a qualitating and enjoyable experience for our children and I am determined to make secondary education a beneficial learning experience more than the current miserable conditions our children have to face. I’ll take that again… I am determined to make secondary education a beneficial learning experience more than the current miserable conditions our children are having to face under the Akufo Addo administration.

“Mr Chairman, at a later date, before the election of 2020, I intend to lay out in detail before all stakeholders and the good people of Ghana our blueprint for the educational sector and especially our plan for making the free SHS program more sustainable”.