Free SHS: A Gimmick Replaces Thinking Up Solutions

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• Yaw Ohemeng 11 years ago

  It seems that you bought into a lot of propaganda during the last elections if you claim that Akufo Addo did not indicate where the money was going to come from to fund the free SHS policy.
  
  When he appeared on the BBC, he ...
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  It seems that you bought into a lot of propaganda during the last elections if you claim that Akufo Addo did not indicate where the money was going to come from to fund the free SHS policy.
  
  When he appeared on the BBC, he never said he did not know the source of funding. The video is available on YouTube and I suggest you view it again. He said it was going to come from re-arranged priorities, economic growth and new resources, namely oil. His only refusal was to indicate how much it was going to cost. Being an astute politician, it is conventional not to announce such things away from your country. You have to show respect to your nationals by making them the first to hear. True to his words, the costed program was announced to Ghanaians first.
  
  He identified the oil proceeds that currently go to GNPC to do nothing but to be spent on capacity building as the main source. For 2012 alone, GNPC spent $110m on capacity building they cannot explain. For about two years or so, GYEEDA spent nearly GHC1.0m with no accountability. This is what is meant by re-arranging priorities.
  
  We are currently spending GHC6.2bn on interest payment on debts. This, we can avoid, if not for our penchant for loans that have done nothing to transform Ghana. So when you write articles of this nature, do well to research the background.
  
  What Mahama is proposing is not free SHS. Free SHS to cost GHC71m? Come on, see through the deception. At best, it is absorption of some charges. At worst, this is insufficient and will unravel with time.
  
  By the way you cannot create jobs with unskilled and unknowledgeable workforce. You have to produce things that people want and there should be people earning enough to fuel the demand. So providing an educated workforce, with the requisite skills, who earn enough to sustain demand, is the cog in the wheel of job creation.

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• DKB 11 years ago

  Yaw thanks for clarification. One thing I detest is intellectual dishonesty which is what the writer of this article is engaging in.

  Yaw thanks for clarification. One thing I detest is intellectual dishonesty which is what the writer of this article is engaging in.

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• Yaw Ohemeng 11 years ago

  GYEEDA spending was GHC1.0bn

  GYEEDA spending was GHC1.0bn

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• TonyPM 11 years ago

  Mister, let me tell you about intellectual integrity. Intellectual integrity is when I am talking about apples and you are talking about oranges and you think we are on the same topic. This opinion article is not about Akuf ...
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  Mister, let me tell you about intellectual integrity. Intellectual integrity is when I am talking about apples and you are talking about oranges and you think we are on the same topic. This opinion article is not about Akufo Addo. It is about free SHS. I made a passing reference to whether or not he identified the source of funding it. We can disagree about that. Whether or not, my point was that Free SHS for everyone was still a bad idea. I said those who need it should be identified and helped but not everyone should get it.
  I didn't say don't educate. If anything, I said improve the quality of the education. Where does it say I don't know the value of education? I didn't say we don't need educated workers. I said there are educated people who need jobs and don't have them. If we continue without free SHS, we will still be getting educated people with no jobs. I am saying put money into creating jobs for the educated people coming out of our schools.
  I believe everyone should have his or her say, and if I put myself out, I know criticism will be coming my way and I accept it. The only reason I am responding to you is that you seem to represent what is wrong with our intellectuals. You went off the tangent and didn't address any of the points I am making and you think that you have something. Often, our intellectual discussions go this way and that why we don't get anywhere. When someone says something, we pick up points that are immaterial and cling to it and fight over it and before long, tempers flare and real discussion is out the door. If you think we need free SHS, say so and say why you believe that otherwise, we are talking past each other. Again, the article is not about Akufo Addo. Let's have a meaningful discussion rather than go off the tangent.

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• TonyPM 11 years ago

  I meant intellectual dishonesty not intellectual integrity. Sorry

  I meant intellectual dishonesty not intellectual integrity. Sorry

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• Opanin 11 years ago

  I do not think that the free SHS Akufo Addo promised as his flagship policy, meant Ghanaian children were going to be taught history, geography, bible knowledge, government etc at high school - as it used to be in the past. I ...
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  I do not think that the free SHS Akufo Addo promised as his flagship policy, meant Ghanaian children were going to be taught history, geography, bible knowledge, government etc at high school - as it used to be in the past. I understood him to say science and technology would be the bedrock of the new SHS curricula.
  
  In Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, China etc SHS leavers invent electronic toys that are sold to Africans. It's a pity Ghanaians bought the ridicule of the policy mounted by Mahama and the NDC and voted against Akufo Addo. Now the same person says it is fine to introduce it. Shame!

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• Elizabeth Darko 11 years ago

  YOU ARE A FOOL,KWASEA.IS THAT ALL U CAN WRITE?GYIMIFOO

  YOU ARE A FOOL,KWASEA.IS THAT ALL U CAN WRITE?GYIMIFOO

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• TonyPM 11 years ago

  I meant intellectual dishonesty not intellectual integrity.

  I meant intellectual dishonesty not intellectual integrity.

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• Paul Buah 11 years ago

  I´m not too clear about this article. I don´t know what exactly the writer wants to convey, and what his concerns are. He talked about two issues, creations of jobs as againt the opportunity to give everyone education, es ...
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  I´m not too clear about this article. I don´t know what exactly the writer wants to convey, and what his concerns are. He talked about two issues, creations of jobs as againt the opportunity to give everyone education, especially those who can not afford to pay for it. He continued that there are already graduates in the systenm without jobs.Yes, he may be right but that doesn´t mean that other too should not have education. Maybe what we need to do,is look at the job market and identify the types of jobs that are available here so we can work toward them when we found ourselves in the universities. Graduates unemployment is not only in Ghana, but all over the world. For the fist time in history, more than 60% of Spaniard have left their country, after graduating, to look for jobs elsewhere and vice-versa. Education must be universal regardless. And I think this is the right time. We need to start from somewhere. It doesn´t matter whose idea it is. What is needed is that the government make sure to put things in place to make it work. We should all support it irrespective of our political affiliations.

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• Francisca Solomon 11 years ago

  Great minds....worth applauding....Bravo

  Great minds....worth applauding....Bravo

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• TonyPM 11 years ago

  Thank Ms. You are very kind.

  Thank Ms. You are very kind.

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• Whatever 11 years ago

  Indeed I fee so ashamed that politicians in this country can look suffering Ghanaians in the face and wind them again. Why are you rushing to produce graduates when there is relatively a non-existing job market in the country ...
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  Indeed I fee so ashamed that politicians in this country can look suffering Ghanaians in the face and wind them again. Why are you rushing to produce graduates when there is relatively a non-existing job market in the country?

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• FOOLISH LUCK 11 years ago

  NEVER HAVE I READ ANY OF THOSE QUIXOTIC ARTICLES YOU EVER PUBLISH, BEYOND THE SECOND PARAGRAPH, AND YET IT GIVES ME A CLUE ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER. YOU HAVE SUCH A WARPED MINDSET, CROOKED, STUPID FELLOW. KWASIA, YOU WERE BORN AN ...
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  NEVER HAVE I READ ANY OF THOSE QUIXOTIC ARTICLES YOU EVER PUBLISH, BEYOND THE SECOND PARAGRAPH, AND YET IT GIVES ME A CLUE ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER. YOU HAVE SUCH A WARPED MINDSET, CROOKED, STUPID FELLOW. KWASIA, YOU WERE BORN AN IMBECILE, GET IT. SO GO AHEAD WITH YOUR CRAZY STUFF. NDC WILL BE OUT OF POWER COME WHAT MAY. AND WE SHALL SEE WHO IS WHO. YOUR STUPID, CLUELESS MAHAMA, WITH THE PERFORMANCE OF A CLASS ONE PUPIL, HAS COME UP WITH "THINKING UP SOLUTIONS" THAT "REPLACE A GIMMICK"? GOD HAVE MERCY ON YOU. YOU'RE JUST A FAKE, QUACK WRITER PARADING AS A JOURNALIST. YOUR NAME IS SYNANYMOUS WITH A STINKING OLD KVIP PLACE OF CONVENIENCE.

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