Free SHS not your personal property, order Adutwum to begin 'review' – NDC MP tells Akufo-Addo

The National Democratic Congress Member of Parliament for Builsa South, Dr. Clement Apaak, has asked President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to direct Education Minister, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, to begin processes for a national dialogue on the free SHS programme.

His comment comes on the back of the president’s recent call for a broader

Read full articleconversation on the programme which started in 2017 to among other things look at its funding component.

In a Twitter post, Dr. Apaak indicated that the president’s comment was welcoming adding that a national conversation was long overdue.

“We welcome NADAA'S call for a broader conversation on Free SHS. We call on him to direct the Minister for Education to initiate the processes for the much needed conversation, which is long overdue. No matter what form it takes, it will lead to a review,” he tweeted.

Speaking on Accra-based Joy FM in a separate interview, the Deputy Ranking Member on the Education Committee in Parliament observed that the Free SHS programme was “borne out of the partisan political campaign in terms of whether it was going to be progressive or the way he implemented it” stressing that “it is not his (President Akufo-Addo’s) personal property,”

The legislator believes the comment by the president is in sync with his widely held view that a stakeholder forum should be organized to build consensus on reviewing Free SHS.

“It is for this reason some of us were consistently relentless in calling attention to the need for a stakeholder forum. And that in other ways, can be looked at as a national conversation so that we can agree on the way forward by reviewing the programme in its entirety,”Dr. Apaak said.

President Akufo-Addo while addressing leadership of the National Union of Ghana Students at the Jubilee House agreed with calls for a review of Free SHS.

“One of the things people have been calling for is the review of Free SHS, I think we should have a broader conversation about the incidence of education on our national development,” President Akufo-Addo said.

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