Even before he gets the nod to be elected president to begin the implementation of his much trumpeted fee-free Senior High School (SHS) education, the flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo Addo, has started dreaming again – this time, promising free university education.
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has promised to ensure that Ghanaian students get access to free education in public universities by the end of his tenure as President, if given the mandate to become president.
According to a Ghana News Agency report, the Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) said it was impossible to give children free primary education but the NPP was able to do it and it was now the turn of Senior High Schools after which public University education would follow.
The report said Nana Akufo Addo has pledged to implement fee-free education at the Senior High School level if he is voted into office, even though there has been a lot of doubt cast around the policy. Akufo Addo’s main contender, President John Mahama of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) has countered his policy by declaring that what the nation needed at this material time is quality and accessible education at all levels.
The NDC has additionally said the constitutional requirement of free education at the basic level, which ends at the Junior High School (JHS), must be satisfied before any talks about jumping up to the SHS level. The NDC has accused the NPP presidential candidate of using the free education campaign as an electoral gimmick to win votes in the upcoming elections.
But Nana Akufo-Addo, on his second day of campaign tour of some constituencies in the Upper West Region, insists it is possible to have free secondary education. He promised to ensure that after the free SHS education, Ghanaian students will access free education in public universities by the end of his tenure as President.
