I started Free SHS so why would I abolish it? - Mahama asks

Former President John Mahama has said as the inventor and initiator of the Free Senior High School policy, it makes no sense for anybody to say he will scrap it should he become President again.

“Free SHS is not going anywhere, Free SHS has come to stay and, so, if anybody tells you anything different, tell the person he is lying”, the presidential candidate of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) told party supporters in Navrongo, Upper East Region during one of his campaign tours.

Mr. Mahama insisted: “I started Free SHS in 2015. I launched it. The video is there. It’s on social media. I’m sure many of you have seen it”.

He explained: “We started with day students and then in 2016, we added boarding students and this government [Akufo-Addo administration] came and continued”.

“How will a person who started a program then come and abolish it?” Mr Mahama wondered.

The former President promised that his next government will rather fix the problems with the implementation of the initiative.

“The NDC is going to make Free SHS better. We are going to improve the Free SHS. We were building community schools. We didn’t finish before we left. We finished some of them. Today, there are children in some of them. Others, too, were very near completion. This government came and abandoned all of them.“And, so, let me tell you what we’ll do: when we come, we’ll fast-track the completion of the 200 schools we were building so that children can have enough vacancies in secondary schools to be able to get a quality education," he said.

“And I’ve made a promise to the people of Ghana and I’m repeating it here in Navrongo: that if I become president or should I say when I become president, I promise the people of Ghana that within one year, I will abolish the double-track system”. He added.