Free SHS, TVET cannot be entrusted in your hands – Akufo-Addo to NDC

President Akufo-Addo has told the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) that its renewed stance on the Free Senior School and TVET programmes cannot be entrusted in their hands.

According to him, the NDC in its eight-year tenure could not adequately manage what he calls the party’s ‘watered down version’ of a so called progressively free education policy.

Speaking at his party’s [New Patriotic Party’s] manifesto launch in Cape Coast, President Akufo-Addo called out the former president, John Mahama to back down on his so-called renewed stance on education.

“The Free SHS policy was not easily done and so we [NPP] intend to protect it and prevent any so called review; ie another word for cancellation. We have no reason to believe the NDC presidential candidates newly proclaimed conversion to Free SHS and Free TVET.”

“For eight years, he [John Mahama and his party [NDC] were loud in their assertions that they did not believe in the Free SHS and Free TVET programmes. They did not like the idea and rubbished it at every opportunity and they proclaimed that it would destroy Ghana’s educational system. When they were in office, they had a hard time trying to run their watered down version of a so called progressively free education”

“Your excellency, please try another one. Your credibility on this one is zero, Free SHS and Free TVET cannot be trusted in your hands,” President Akufo-Addo stressed.

Meanwhile, a Deputy Finance Minister, Abena Osei-Asare has said the future of 1.2 million persons have been secured as a result of the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) programme.

The policy was a government initiative introduced in 2017 under the Akufo-Addo administration with a core mandate to provide essential education and adequate learning experiences for students and every qualified Ghanaian child.